by Yori Yalon and Israel Hayom Staff
Canadian media reports that Ottawa's government plans to use hate crime laws against advocacy groups urging boycotts of Israel • Move criticized by political opposition, anti-Israel groups as "remarkably aggressive tactics" against protected free speech.
Canada's Public Safety
Minister Steven Blaney
|
Photo credit: Reuters  |
The Canadian government may seek legal action
against organizations calling for the boycott of Israel or Israeli
goods, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Tuesday.
According to the report, the government plans
to use hate crime laws against Canadian advocacy groups urging boycotts
of the Jewish state.
The move, already labeled by those opposing it
as "remarkably aggressive tactics," could target "a range of civil
society organizations, from the United Church of Canada and the Canadian
Quakers to campus protest groups and labor unions," the CBC said.
Canada's intention to exercise a "zero
tolerance" approach against groups affiliated with the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel was made clear by a
spokesperson for Ottawa's Public Safety Ministry, who said the
government plans to enforce its comprehensive sets of hate crime laws in
this matter.
Such measures, if taken, would be in line with
a memorandum of understanding signed in January between then-Foreign
Minister John Baird and Israeli officials, pledging Canada's commitment
to combat the BDS movement.
According to the CBC, the memo described the movement as "the new face of anti-Semitism."
Public Security Minister Steven Blaney,
however, has denied his ministry plans to make such use of the
legislative measures, but stated that articles in the law were meant to
fight incitement, and that he trusted the Canadian legal system to
properly enforce them.
Reports of the government's planned moves have sparked concern among the BDS movement and other anti-Israel groups in Canada.
According to the CBC, these groups claim that
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, which is a staunch
supporter of Israel, has "changed the Criminal Code definition of hate
speech last year, adding the criterion of 'national origin' to race and
religion. This change could ... effectively lump people who speak
against Israel in with those who speak against Jews."
Canadian civil right groups maintain that boycotts -- "a
long recognized form of political expression" -- fall under the
constitutionally protected right of free speech.
Yori Yalon and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=25433
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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