Canadian Jews Request Conference with Premier on Bilingualism

The Canadian Jewish Congress today requested a conference with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson to discuss possible changes in the Government’s efforts to formulate a new policy dealing with Canada’s status as a bilingual and bicultural society.

In the request to the Premier, sent by Michael Garber, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the CJC objected particularly to certain terminology in the Government’s instructions to the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, Those instructions, the Congress maintained, do not recognize minorities other than those of Anglo-Saxon-Celtic or French origin as equal partners in Canadian society.

Mr. Garber pointed out in his letter to Mr. Pearson that the Royal Commission is guided now by instructions “to recommend what steps should be taken on the basis of an equal partnership between the two founding races, taking into account the contribution made by other ethnic groups to the cultural enrichment of Canada and the measures that should be taken to safeguard that contribution.”.

“In this sense, ” the CJC president maintained in his letter to the Premier, “The Canadian Confederation will be developed on the basis of a bi-racial and equal partnership, from which all others are excluded.” The mere reference to “other ethnic groups, ” he declared, is not apt today “when such a large number of Canadians are neither of English nor of French extraction.”

The Congress president also objected to the use of the word “race” which, he noted “in recent times has taken on a sinister aspect and evokes many bitter memories, particularly amongst the other ethnic groups.'” Mr. Garber asked the Premier for a conference at which an effort would be made to amend the terminology now guiding the Royal Commission.