September 6, 2010: Whitton’s ‘historic significance’ is not worthy of honour

By Michael Regenstreif

It made headlines recently when it was announced that Charlotte Whitton, the mayor of Ottawa from 1951 to 1956 and 1960 to 1964, had been nominated for official recognition as a Canadian of “national historic significance.”

Nominations are submitted to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board, which investigates and recommends to the minister of the environment which nominees they consider worthy of recognition. The minister then accepts or rejects the board’s recommendation. To date, 648 Canadians have been so recognized.

Whitton’s name was put forward by the Ottawa Committee of the Famous 5 Foundation, an organization that encourages women to participate in politics and public service, because she was the first woman to serve as mayor of a major Canadian city.

Whitton’s nomination became news when it emerged that several major Jewish organizations oppose Whitton’s designation on the basis of her antisemitism and have asked Environment Minister Jim Prentice to reject it.

Long before she became mayor, Whitton was one of Canada’s most prominent social workers as director of the Canadian Council on Child Welfare for more than 20 years and was instrumental in keeping Jewish refugee orphans out of Canada during the Second World War, thus sealing the fate of many in the Holocaust.

Whitton’s role in that shameful chapter of Canadian history is well documented in None Is Too Many by Irving Abella and Harold Troper, and in Open Your Hearts: The Story of the Jewish War Orphans in Canada by my cousin Fraidie Martz. (The Jewish war orphans Martz wrote about in her book were only allowed into Canada beginning in 1947.)

In an op-ed published August 18 in the Ottawa Citizen, Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, and Mitchell Bellman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, argue that Whitton’s actions, motivated by antisemitism, doomed hundreds of Jewish children to die in the Holocaust. That, they say, should make her ineligible for the historic designation. I agree.

Farber and Bellman also point to an incident that took place in 1964, when Whitton was mayor of Ottawa and refused to allow a half-million dollar donation (worth more than $3.5 million in 2010 dollars) from Jewish philanthropist Bertram Loeb to the Civic Hospital to build and equip a research facility.

In an editorial published March 3, 1964, the Ottawa Citizen attacked Whitton for her decision.

“Why did Miss Whitton do it? This is the question that must be puzzling many Ottawans today,” wrote the Citizen.

In a Globe and Mail obituary published when Loeb died in 2006, it was written that some “suspected that Ms. Whitton cringed at the thought of seeing a Jewish name on a city facility.”

Having now read the through the 1964 Ottawa Citizen coverage of the Whitton-Loeb story, that explanation makes sense to me.

Dave Mullington, the author of a forthcoming biography of Whitton, responded to Farber and Bellman with an op-ed in the Citizen refuting allegations of Whitton’s antisemitism with a short list of several interactions Whitton had with Jews or Jewish organizations, which, he wrote, “certainly show that she was not as bigoted as some would have us believe.”

Mullington’s defence of Whitton is ironic in light of a December 3, 1982 article he wrote as a Citizen reporter on assignment at Temple Israel for a presentation Abella and Troper made on Whitton and her role in ensuring that Canada not be a haven for Jewish children during the Holocaust.

Mullington reported, in great detail, on Abella and Troper’s research and unquestioningly quotes the authors as saying Whitton was “an outright racist.”

August 16, 2010: We depend on the long-form census data

By Michael Regenstreif

On September 22 last year, Linda Kislowicz, CEO of UIA Federations Canada, and Andrea Freedman, its national director of planning and development, came to Ottawa and presented the Ottawa-oriented findings of the UIA National Task Force on Jewish Demographics to a gathering of lay leaders and senior staff of Ottawa’s various Jewish agencies and organizations.

The task force based its findings on detailed analysis of Canadian census results – going back to the 1981 census – along with estimates of results, based on identified trends, that it expected to see in data from the censuses due in 2011 and 2021.

Major community organizations – be they Jewish, other faith groups or secular – as well as governments of all levels, school boards, universities, hospitals, social service agencies, transportation boards like OC Transpo, and so many other bodies, rely on census data in the formulation of the long-term plans they need to make in order to serve their communities and clientele. As Federation Chair Donna Dolansky explained in the Federation Report (Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, November 2, 2009), much of the long-term strategic planning by the Federation is based on this information.

As almost every organization in the country involved in long-term planning will tell you, it is vital that the data they work with be as accurate and reliable as possible.

The Canadian census has long had a reputation for the reliability of its data. However, thanks to a surprising order handed down this summer from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative cabinet, the reliability of the census records to be gathered in May 2011 may be in doubt.

Until now, 80 per cent of Canadian homes received the short-form census questionnaire with just a few basic questions that can be completed in about five minutes or so. The other 20 per cent of households received the long-form questionnaire, which takes about a half-hour to 45 minutes.

Filling out the census form – whether long or short – has always been mandatory, under penalty of law.

Now, all of a sudden, the Tories have decided to make the long-form census voluntary. According to Industry Minister Tony Clement, the mandatory long-form was scrapped because no one should have to face prison for not completing it.

Until the Harper Government took this action, there was no issue surrounding the long-form census. It was never an election issue, an anti-census mob had never gathered on Parliament Hill and, if it was ever even mentioned in Question Period, it didn’t make the news.

And no one has ever gone to jail for failing to fill out their long-form questionnaire.

Social scientists and statisticians have uniformly condemned the Government’s action and have raised serious doubts about the reliability of the data, if answering the long-form questions becomes optional. Munir Sheikh, now the former head of Statistics Canada, resigned in protest.

It makes no sense whatsoever to scrap the mandatory long-form. The Harper Government should act now to reverse the decision.

Rotem bill

There’s been much debate in the Jewish world about a bill, introduced in Israel’s Knesset by Israel Beiteinu MK David Rotem, which would change how conversion to Judaism is administered and recognized. The Israel Beiteinu party, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.

The issue has proven to be extremely divisive in Israel – Netanyahu himself has come out against the bill – and has sparked rare intervention from the established leadership of Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora. On July 20, Federation Chair Donna Dolansky and President and CEO Mitchell Bellman wrote to Netanyahu expressing the Federation’s concerns about the negative impact passage of the bill would have on Israel-Diaspora relations.

On July 22, a deal was brokered to delay further debate and votes on the bill for six months.

July 19, 2010: Bulletin internship honours Barry Fishman’s legacy

By Michael Regenstreif

When Barry Fishman – my predecessor as editor of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – passed away on October 22, 2009 following his brave and dignified three-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his family suggested that donations in his memory be made to the Barry Fishman Ottawa Jewish Bulletin Scholarship Fund at the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation.

As editor of the Bulletin, Barry particularly enjoyed working with young journalists and several, including Ariel Vered, Alexander Baker and Jason Sheriff, interned at our newspaper during his tenure. Not long before he died, Barry suggested a fund be created to ensure that the Bulletin will maintain an internship position each summer for a student journalist.

I worked closely with Barry when I arrived in Ottawa three years ago to join the Bulletin and I know how much pride he felt in the newspaper and how much satisfaction he felt seeing our young journalists gain valuable experience and develop their craft. Barry’s influence continues to be felt in each issue of the paper we produce and it’s so very fitting that his legacy will endure and be honoured each year with our summer internship.

The first intern hired under the auspices of Barry’s fund is Jacqueline Shabsove, a combined honours double major in the communication and religion departments at Carleton University.

Jacqueline began her eight-week term with us during the final production week for this issue and will be here with us through the end of August writing news reports and features and proofreading pages before they go to print.

While her work will be particularly evident in our August 16 and September 6 (Rosh Hashanah) issues, Jacqueline’s first two articles – completed efficiently on very quick deadlines – are in this issue on pages 9 and 11.

To make a donation to the Barry Fishman Ottawa Jewish Bulletin Scholarship Fund, call the Foundation at 613- 798-4696, ext. 232.

Campus Life column

Speaking of young journalists, I’m pleased to announce that Ilana Belfer, a communications student at Carleton, is our Campus Life columnist for the 2010-2011 academic year. Her first column is in this issue on page 24.

While the Campus Life column usually just runs monthly during the school year, I asked Ilana to write a column for this issue when she told me that she’d be going on a Birthright trip to Israel in June.

With Birthright being such an important experience for so many Jewish students throughout the Diaspora, I thought it would be interesting to hear directly from an Ottawa student about the effect the trip had on her.

Ilana will return to the Bulletin in September with the first of her regular Campus Life columns.

Hate crimes charged

Like most journalists, I believe in freedom of speech and open debate. But, outright hatemongering, fabricating lies, inciting violence and calls to genocide have absolutely nothing to do with freedom of speech.

Just before going to press, we received word that the Ontario Provincial Police has laid hate crime charges against Salman Hossain, 25, a suspended York University student, for “willfully promoting and advocating genocide of the Jewish community.”

Apparently, the charges against Hossain are the first ever laid in Canada for promoting genocide. I’ve looked at Hossain’s website and read some of his rants. They are probably the most extremely hateful things I’ve ever seen. If ever there was a worthy candidate for such a prosecution, he would seem to be it.

Rabbi Simes

We report in a front-page story about the terrible highway accident involving Rabbi Yehuda Simes and his family and the severe injuries he sustained.

Ottawa’s Jewish community has rallied, financially and spiritually, in support of the very popular teacher and his family at this extremely difficult time. There have been several impromptu fundraisers and prayer sessions and – following the Simes family’s suggestion – many have found ways to increase their level of Shabbat observance.

On behalf of everyone at the Bulletin, I join in wishing R’fuah Shlema to Rabbi Simes.