The City Council of Toronto has passed a motion “strongly petitioning the government of Canada to enact legislation” that would effectively outlaw a discriminatory boycott such as the Arab boycott against Israel and against Canadian citizens and companies who trade with Israel.
The resolution, introduced by Alderman Tony O’Donohue (whose ward, incidentally has a negligible Jewish population) recalled that in 1975. Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau said that this intrusion into Canadian affairs was “alien to everything that this government stands for.”
The legislator added that “the government of Canada, by avoiding the central issue in the anti Israel boycott by Arab states, is causing concern and unnecessary tension in the business community of Toronto by its refusal to respond…by enacting legislation that clearly sets out that Canada will not tolerate the policy of any country refusing to conduct business with Canadian companies or their affiliates that employ persons of the Jewish faith or hold certain political views.”
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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.
