Regional council condemns BDS movement
Niagara regional council voted to condemn the Boycott-Divestment-Sanction Israel movement and the Niagara Centre NDP Riding Association that asked the Ontario NDP to support it.
“I want to offer my sincere apologies to the Jewish community,” said Fort Erie Coun. Sandy Annunziata, who brought the motion forward.
“Even though I am not the one who should be making the apology and begging the forgiveness of the Jewish community, I feel compelled to ask for forgiveness for residents who have shared their remorse that something like this could be festering and lurking in Niagara.”
The BDS movement calls for a boycott of Israel until it conforms to United Nations resolutions ordering the end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It has been widely denounced as anti-Semitic for singling out Jewish businesses and harming the workers they employ.
Regional council voted 21-2 for Annunziata’s motion.
Welland Coun. George Marshall and St. Catharines Coun. Kelly Edgar voted against the motion, not in support of the BDS movement, but because the motion singled out the NDP and its riding association.
Annunziata’s motion was also amended during the meeting to include any other group that supports BDS.
“I arrived feeling this isn’t something we should deal with at this council, but I’ve been convinced otherwise tonight,” St. Catharines Coun. Tim Rigby said after hearing the speakers. “I think we should vote to move forward with this motion.”
Four delegations, including B’nai Brith Canada, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, made presentations imploring council to condemn the BDS movement and anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in Canada. B’nai Brith Canada says there were more than 1,700 antiSemitic incidents across the country last year — the highest number the group has ever recorded.
“No matter what reason this came before the chamber, it is an opportunity to stand up against hate,” said Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada.
Annunziata asserted that Welland riding MPP Cindy Forster, and the riding association, should be held accountable for that motion and apologize for it. The local NDP motion died at the Ontario party’s April convention and is not part of NDP policy.
In an open letter sent to councillors, Forster said the motion put forward by Annunziata is an attempt to score cheap political points against her.
Annunziata is also Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority chairman and Forster a frequent NPCA critic.
“I can’t help but wonder if communities across the Niagara region are as tired as I am with the headlines of scandals that have flooded our news in the last while,” Forster said in a written statement. “If the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) board’s recent issues weren’t enough, tomorrow the NPCA board chair, Sandy Annunziata, will attempt to appropriate a very serious, politically-charged issue in a misguided effort to smear four decades of public service with baseless charges of anti-Semitism.”
Forster was not present when the riding association passed the motion, and she has not endorsed it. The motion died during the NDP’s May convention, never making it to the floor to be voted on by party members.
Forster said if the motion had come to a vote, she would have voted against it.
In her letter, Forster said she rejects any form of anti-Semi tis ma nd always has.
“To my colleagues at council today, and to the valued members of our community who’ll be making deputations: if I haven’t been clear, and if my years of public service haven’t spoken loudly enough, I absolutely, unequivocally, condemn anti-Semitism and all forms of racial discrimination,” she wrote.
“However, I also condemn politicians who use fabricated accusations of hate speech as an attempt to distract from their own record — especially in today’s global political context.”
The meeting began with Marshall moving that the motion was out of order and didn’t conform to the Region’s procedural bylaw. It is something the Region has no jurisdiction over.
Regional Chair Alan Caslin said council has dealt with other issues that it had no jurisdiction over, including wind turbines and the deer hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park.
He ruled the motion and delegations would remain on the agenda. A challenge to his ruling lost by one vote, 12-11.