The fourth annual Canada-Israel Committee meeting opened yesterday for two days. Representatives from all parts of Canada are examining the status of Canada-Israel relations. Myer Bick, national director of the committee, presented a report in which he said that Canada, being an oil-importing and large trading country, has embarked since the Yom Kippur War on a policy of expanding Canadian relations with the Arab world. New embassies in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and many conferences on trade with Arabian countries are visible domestic indicators, as are the petro-dollar loans to some provincial governments.
Bick said “Canada’s expressed policy of fostering improved relations with the Third World have given a more measured and impartial tone to Canadian pronouncements on Middle East issues.” Bick said that “the committee should explore the anti-Israel position taken by CUSO, Canadian Union of Students Overseas, and their funding by the Canadian government and that contact be maintained with the Canadian government to ensure that our views have some bearing on decisions or policies in which we have special interest.”
The Canada-Israel Committee is an umbrella organization sponsored by the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Zionist Federation and the B’nai B’rith.
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