Leaders of Canadian Jewish organizations have denounced the government’s policy on the Arab boycott as “weak and incomplete” and called for tougher legislation to be adopted by Ottawa.
In a communique issued here Friday, the Jewish leaders said that a report that day by the Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce “clearly demonstrates the weakness” of the government’s policy on boycotts. “The existing mechanism deals only with those transactions in which the assistance of government agencies are required, thus leaving unsupervised many transactions in which Canadian companies do not need to apply for such help,” the communique said.
It noted that because of the government’s “narrow definition” of a boycott, “a large number of transactions containing clauses discriminatory against Canadian citizens and business are ignored.”
The Jewish leaders pointed out that the government was able to remove boycott clauses from 24 contracts, proving that “a firm, comprehensive anti-boycott policy could be effective without prejudicing Canada’s trading links with the Arab Mideast. The Canadian Jewish community continues to believe that the government should introduce legislation to outlaw discrimination against Canadians through secondary and tertiary boycotts and will increase its efforts in this regard.”
The communique was signed by Judge Philip Givens, president of the Canadian Zionist Federation; Norman May, chairman of the Canada-Israel Committee; Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress; and Harvey Crestohl, president of B’nai B’rith District 22.
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