Anti-Semitic charge lobbed at Welland NDP by Annunziata
The head of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority and Welland’s MPP are locking horns again, this time over an issue about Israeli-Palestinian relations.
On May 18, Fort Erie Coun. Sandy Annunziata rose in Niagara Region council chambers to call out Niagara Centre NDP MPP Cindy Forster for a March motion passed by the Welland NDP riding association to support a boycott of Israel.
In March, the riding association passed a motion asking the Ontario NDP to support the boycott-divestment-sanction movement, or BDS, against Israel. The movement calls for a boycott of Israel until it conforms to United Nations resolutions ordering the end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The motion died at the NDP’s April convention and is not part of NDP policy.
The BDS movement is often criticized for being overtly antiSemitic, and Annunziata put forward a motion that would see regional council condemn BDS and the riding association’s March motion.
“I just want to speak to the issue and highlight the hypocrisy that has become the new standard here,” Annunziata said during the fourhour-long council meeting ostensively about the regional integrity commissioner and Region’s proposed code of conduct. “How egregious it is when public policy, public hate speech, is crafted right here in Niagara … It was put forward here by MPP Cindy Forster’s Niagara Centre provincial riding association. The antiSemitic policy was crafted right here in Niagara.”
Annunziata said the dead motion taints all of Niagara, and council should make it clear that it does not support the association’s position on BDS.
In an interview Wednesday, Forster said the association motion is not public policy and never became part of the Ontario NDP platform. She said as the riding MPP she is not a voting member of the association and was not present when the pro-BDS motion was passed by the 10 members of the association.
“I vote as an MPP at the convention,” Forster said. “This was not something the NDP was interested in, and it died at the convention. It never made it onto the floor for debate. In fact, during the convention, we voted to ask the provincial government to include antiSemitism in the provincial antiracism directorate. “
Forster said in 20 years as an elected official she has never been accused of racism or anti-Semitism and that Annunziata is engaging in personal attacks.
“If Mr. Annunziata wants to engage in this sort of personal smear campaign, well, I am not terribly surprised.”
It is not the first time Annunziata and Forster have been at cross purposes.
Forster has been one of the leading political voices in Niagara calling for an audit of NPCA’s operations. There has been mounting public pressure for an audit of the authority, a body with taxing powers that is responsible for conservation in Niagara and Hamilton.
Forster has raised the issue of an audit several times at Queen’s Park, and most recently was critical of Annunziata and the NPCA board for its public censure of former board member and Lincoln regional Coun. Bill Hodgson.
In a widely circulated letter, Annunziata alleged Hodgson improperly influenced the bidding process that would have hired an auditor. However, Annunziata has refused to discuss the specifics of his allegation, and the NPCA has refused to release a lawyers’ report used as the justification for the censure.
Hodgson, who had called for an audit, has since resigned from the NPCA, saying he was bullied by other board members.
Forster has criticized Annunziata over the matter and publicly defended Hodgson.
Forster said she believes Annunziata’s motion is a counterattack directed at her because of her public criticisms of NPCA.
In a Wednesday interview, Annunziata denied his BDS motion has anything to do with the NPCA.
“For Cindy Forster to blame the NPCA or to blame me is completely ridiculous,” Annunziata said. “I believe that all elected officials need to be held to account and she should be taking responsibility for her riding association’s disgusting, anti-Semitic motion and pleading for the Jewish community’s forgiveness.”
The May 18 council meeting was a marathon session devoted to three integrity commissioner reports that found St. Catharines Coun. Andy Petrowski violated the region’s code of conduct, including two reports about Petrowski’s social media conduct.
Annunziata said he raised the BDS issue at the meeting because St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik referenced a tweet by Petrowski regarded by some to be anti-Semitic. Annunziata said it was hypocritical to call out Petrowski but not Forster, even though Forster is not a regional councillor and was not a subject of the integrity commissioner reports.
“I was going to bring this up no matter what we were talking about at council,” Annunziata said. “The BDS movement is considered by our Jewish community to be antiSemitic and, in fact, 2016 was the worst year for anti-Semitic incidents in Canada. It was a recordsetting year for that, and I think we should stand up and oppose it.”
Annunziata was referring to an annual report on anti-Semitism in Canada released last week by B’nai Brith Canada.
The 2016 audit of anti-Semitic incidents found a 26 per cent increase in the number of reported incidents to Canadian law enforcement and B’nai Brith’s own antiSemitic hotline.
Amanda Hohmann, national director B’nai Brith’s league of human rights, said the data might not reflect an increase in the number of actual incidents of violence, harassment and vandalism, but rather is a reflection of greater awareness and willingness to report incidents.
“What I can say for certain is that the nature of anti-Semitism in Canada is changing,” Hohmann said, noting that 2016 saw a 20 per cent increase in reports of Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial used to be the domain of right wing extremists like neo-Nazis, but is increasingly popular among the far left who, she says, “claim we have to debate whether the Holocaust actually happened.”
Hohmann said criticism of the Israeli government should not, on its own, be considered antiSemitic. However, she said BDS leaders often refuse to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist and go as far as to compare Israel with the defunct state of Apartheid South Africa.
“Apartheid means you have two sets of laws, one for one group of people and another for another group, based on race,” Hohmann said. “That is not the case in Israel. Everyone lives under the same laws. Israel is the most liberal democracy in the Middle East.”
Hohmann said anti-BDS motions, like the one Annunziata put forward, will do nothing to improve Palestinian-Israeli relations. Local governments responsible for roads do not set Canada’s foreign policy.
“But I think it does send an important message. Just like the people who want to pass pro-BDS motions want to send a message, so do motions against BDS send a message that anti- Semitism is not acceptable.”
Annunziata’s motion was deferred on May 18.
“We have heard from Coun. Annunziata. Because he says it is so is not very comforting these days for a variety of reasons. I can’t support it,” said Welland Coun. George Marshall during the May 18 meeting, adding councillors should get more information before hearing a motion and “not stand up at the 11th hour, especially on a provincial level, and going after a local member of the parliament. It is silly stuff.”
“Let’s be clear,” Annunziata replied. “I am not going after the local area MPP. What I am doing is condemning anti-Semitism in its entirety.”
Annunziata told The Standard he will not prepare extra information for councillors before the motion comes up again.
“They can find their own education,” he said.