The efforts of French-speaking Canadians in Quebec to achieve “their rightful place” poses no threat to Jews and other minority groups in the province, Premier Jean Lesage told the 39th Fellowship Dinner in Temple Emanu-El Synagogue here. The Premier was presented with a Brotherhood Award of Merit.
The Premier called on all ethnic groups in the province to support their French-speaking fellow citizens as he explained that French-Canadians were becoming less intolerant on religious and racial lines as they built an improved society and their self-confidence increased. A number of neo-Fascists have been active in Quebec in recent years.
He said that “a few isolated extremist demonstrations, or a number of remarks taken out of context” have “the appearance of threats.” He assured his audience of Catholics, Jews and Protestants, however, that the movement “is not directed against anyone and will never be as long as I am leader of the government in power” and has “no racial overtones whatever.”
The Premier, who visited Israel last summer, compared the changes with those of Israel, asserting that in Israel, as in Quebec, “the people are working to achieve balance and are gradually laying the social and economic framework for a community in full expansion.” He was honored by Temple Emanu-El for his “distinguished leadership in the political and cultural life of Canada.”
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