A pending case of alleged discrimination against a Jewish job applicant by a Montreal brokerage firm highlighted a discussion today as to whether there was anti-Jewish discrimination in the securities field in Canada.
The Globe and Mail reported that its inquiries had produced a virtually unanimous response that there was no religious discrimination in the stock exchanges in either Toronto or Montreal, although discrimination on the basis of age, citizenship and sex was admitted.
The newspaper study showed that the Toronto Stock Exchange did not name a Jewish member, T.M. Sterling, until 1962, and that the Montreal Exchange did not name a Jewish member, Harry Shapiro, until last March. One Jewish senior partner in a stock exchange member-firm told the newspaper that “anyone who makes charges of discrimination against the exchange does not know what he is talking about.” Another Jewish broker suggested, however, that it was strange that, in the combined 200 years of the Toronto and Montreal exchanges, each had only one Jewish member.
The Montreal brokerage firm is challenging the case, filed under the Quebec Employment Discrimination Act, on grounds that the province does not have the constitutional right to act in this area.
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.
