Cjc Seeks Assurances That Saudis Will Not Discriminate Against Jews in Universities Exchange Program

The Canadian Jewish Congress has asked the Ontario government for assurances that Saudi Arabia will not discriminate against Jewish students and faculty under the exchange program instituted last week between the University of Toronto and King Faisal University in Riyadh.

Irwin Cotler, president of the CJC, also wired James Ham, president of the University of Toronto, expressing serious concern over the implications of the exchange program involving scores of foreign students and a possible flow of millions of dollars in Saudi investments to Toronto in the form of research funds.

Cotler’s telegram cited “well known discriminatory policies of the Saudi government which offend Canadian values in the domain of human rights.” He suggested that the University terminate the exchange contract if it is discriminatory.

CITES SAUDI ARABIA’S PROHIBITIONS

The five-year contract between Toronto University and the Saudi institution calls for the exchange of Canadian experts in many areas of the engineering profession for students in the same field. Norman May, legal counsel of the CJC, noted that Saudi law prohibits the entry of Zionists and “since Saudis consider all Jews as Zionists, it is a distinction without difference.”

Gordon Slemon, Dean of Engineering at Toronto University, said the possibility of anti-Jewish discrimination did not arise in the negotiations for the exchange agreement and that he would not have signed any agreement containing discriminatory clauses. At the same time, he acknowledged that the granting of visas is a matter for the Saudi government.

A similar controversy is going on in Montreal over an exchange agreement between Concordia University there and King Faisal University.