Official status has been given to the formation of a Canada-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group (CIPFG), an organization which will boost and facilitate contact between the two countries. Formation of the parliamentary friendship group was confirmed by Rev. Roland de Corneille, a Liberal member of Parliament, one of its organizers.
De Corneille said the purpose of the new association is to exchange information and visits between Canadian parliamentarians and members of the Knesset. Commenting on the international diplomatic isolation which has increasingly surrounded Israel in the last year, de Corneille said the parliamentary friendship group would “help legitimize Israel in a world which seeks to delegitimize it, if not destroy it.” He said the CIPFG is the first Canadian parliamentary group of this kind in Ottawa.
De Corneille pointed out there are many similar parliamentary associations and friendship groups with other countries, a fact that is little known. Among them are the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, which is multicultural in scope, and the Canada-United States and Canada-France Group, which are strictly bi-lateral. Almost all Canadian MPs and Senators belong to one or several of these associations, he said. Primarily, they facilitate contact between politicians of all countries and are important avenues for cross-cultural understanding.
“Of particular importance,” stressed de Corneille, “is the fact that the CIPFG is in a special category because it has been granted official status and recognition by Jeanne Sauve, Speaker of the House of Commons, and Jean Marchand, Speaker of the Senate.”
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