Quebec’s Minister of Manpower and Immigration, Jean Bienvenue, has welcomed the support of the Jewish community in helping maintain provincial unity. “The presence in great numbers of Jews in the province of Quebec is assisting the government in rejecting French-Canadian separatism” he told an audience of 300 Jews of the Loge L’Alliance B’nai B’rith de Montreal, the only French-speaking Jewish lodge in North America, on the occasion of its installation of its new executive committee, headed by realtor Nat Siegler.
“Thanks to your presence in this province, we are able to deflate the arrogance of separatists and reject separatism,” Bienvenue declared. “We call you all French-Canadians.” Mrs. Francoise Laporte, a citizenship judge and the widow of Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte, who was slain by Quebec terrorists in Oct. 1970, received an ovation when she told the lodge members she felt “at home” among Jews. Siegler announced that trees will be planted in Israel’s Martyrs’ Forest in memory of Laporte.
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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.
