A lively debate over the proposal advanced by an anti-Semitic bloc in the City Council demanding that immigration from Eastern and Central European nations be curtailed took place at the Council session yesterday.
The resolution was adopted but not until a paragraph referring to the exclusion particularly of anti-Christian, Communistic elements” from Europe was deleted.
The chief exponents of the resolution were Alderman Auger and Alderman Depuis, notoriously anti-Semitic, who were excoriated by Jewish colleagues in the Council. The attempt to impose anti-Semitism upon the Quebec populace and the injection of the issue into the proceedings of the Council, were denounced by Alderman Leon Trepanier, Council leader.
Mr. Trepanier openly charged that Depuis is bent on making racial antagonism an issue here. He declared that attempts are being made to convert Canadian merchants to anti-Semitism and even enlist their efforts in an anti-Jewish campaign.
Alderman Joseph Schubert asserted with feeling that the Jewish people are the strongest advocates of peace, adding that only the most violent Hitler atrocities have had the effect of arousing a natural desire to combat these atrocities with war.
Mr. Schubert said that the immigration resolution is equivalent to a sanction of Hitler’s policies. He expressed fear that world Jewry and many Britons would be antagonized.
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