A committee of Canadian Jewish leaders will be set up to help Federal and Provincial government officials rewrite sections of the constitution, the newly-installed president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Irwin Cotler, said here. The committee will limit suggestions to those parts of the Canadian constitution dealing with minority and human rights, and multiculturism, Cotler told a press conference.
The new president also spoke about Quebec Jews trying to integrate into the political and social mainstream of French Quebec. “I think, to Jews, Focalization is as inevitable as it is irreversible. Quebec will soon be as French as Ontario is English,” he said. He warned that the defeat of the May 20 Quebec referendum on separation does not reflect “a return to the pre-1976 business as usual. It was not a no to sovereignty association. It was a yes to negotiation, constitutional change and renewed federalism.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.