Canadian Jewish Congress Concludes Five-day Session, Re-elects Garber

With more than 800 delegates participating, the Canadian Jewish Congress today ended its five-day plenary session here by adapting a series of resolutions dealing with racist manifestations in Canada, immigration, support for Israel, and the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union. The plenary session, held every three years, re-elected Michael Garber as president.

In its resolution dealing with race hatred, the Congress urged the Canadian Government to adopt legislation which would incorporate “effective measures against propagation of race hatred and group libel.” The CJC urged continued efforts to obtain legislation in three of Canada’s provinces–Alberta, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island–forbidding discrimination in employment on grounds of race or religion. The Congress also criticized the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for “conducting interviews with Canadian and American neo-Nazis.”

In a resolution on immigration, the Congress urged the Government to continue to give consideration of representations “on behalf of displaced and uprooted” people by the CJC and the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services.

Another resolution affirmed the CJC’s devotion to Israel, and called on Canadian Jewry to continue to aid Israel “in every possible way.” It also called for “frequent and constant interchange between Jews in Israel and Jews in the Diaspora to maintain the vitality of our historic consciousness.”

Regarding Soviet Jewry, the Congress urged the Soviet Government to permit emigration of Jews for purposes of family reunification, to allow development of Jewish culture and education in the USSR, and to undertake “a vigorous campaign by Soviet mass media against anti-Semitism.”