Jewish Independent: NPA offers mea culpa

April 14, 2006

NPA offers mea culpa

Kerfuffle after AGM conflicts with seder.
PAT JOHNSON

Representatives of Vancouver's civic governing party, the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), were in damage control mode last week after scheduling their annual general meeting to conflict with the first seder of Passover.

The scheduling of the party's internal elections means few, if any, of the NPA's Jewish members will be at the April 12 meeting, where new officers will be elected.

Matthew Taylor, president of the board of the NPA, apologized for the oversight."We wanted to convey our sincere apologies," he said in an interview with the Independent. "The fact of the matter is it's a simple oversight. We didn't realize it was going to be the first day of, obviously, a very significant Jewish holiday. There was no intention to single anybody out. It was simply a question of not having checked the calendar properly for religious holidays."

He attempted to reassure Jewish supporters and voters.

"There is no intention whatsoever to send any message to the Jewish community," he asserted, "other than we consider ourselves honored to have members of the Jewish community who are members of the NPA and certainly do have no intention to send any negative message whatsoever."

His apology was echoed by Colin Metcalfe, a member of the NPA's board who was the manager of Sam Sullivan's successful mayoral campaign last November.

"On behalf of the board of the NPA," Metcalfe said, "I want to apologize to the Jewish community for being a part of the decision – mea culpa. We screwed up."

Metcalfe insisted the timing was an oversight and did not represent anything sinister, such as an attempt to keep some of the mayor's supporters away from the meeting.

"I'm on the board of the NPA and the discussion that took place around the dates were simply based on availability. I am convinced that, while we should have looked at this a little more closely, it was done because of the date that the facility was available," said Metcalfe.

"We wouldn't have an AGM with the NPA on Christmas Eve," he added, by comparison. "It just wouldn't be done."

Last year, the NPA held a fund-raiser on Kol Nidre.

When the coincidence of the meeting with Passover was pointed out to party brass, Metcalfe said, "We were, like 'Oh, we've made a mistake here.' "

Marty Zlotnick, a longtime NPA activist who was elected to the parks board last November, dismissed the Independent's inquiries, saying he would not be at the meeting because he will be out of town.

"I really don't have a comment on the matter. It's just unfortunate that the night was set that way," he said. "I don't have a comment."

Bernie Simpson, a political activist and former MLA who has been a prominent supporter of Sullivan, contended that the incident is a sign that Sullivan needs to get a stronger hold on his party.

"I have no doubt that if Sam Sullivan and his immediate supporters were in control of the executive of NPA, the fund-raiser that was held on Yom Kippur and the annual general meeting that is being held on the first seder would not be taking place," said Simpson. "I think what this reflects is that he has not got the type of influence that he should have or would like to have of the NPA board."

Simpson said the mayor expressed to him his disappointment over the timing.

"I have discussed this with him and his campaign manager and they are in complete agreement that it's totally inappropriate to have these events on the most religious of the Jewish holidays," said Simpson.

Mark Weintraub, who is chair of Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region, asked political leaders and party organizers to be mindful that the scheduling of certain events could preclude participation by a religious community.

"There really needs to be resolve amongst all of us, including individual members of political parties to ensure that there will be maximum inclusiveness in our political processes," Weintraub said. "This has occurred on Passover, a festival that has been heralded as an inspiration for political freedom and political democracy, so it certainly underscores the point in an ironic manner that we all have to redouble our efforts to ensure inclusiveness in our very diverse city."

Howard Jampolsky, who served 17 years on the board of the NPA, said the mix-up is something that didn't happen when he was on the board.

"When I was on the board, it was always one of the things that I would do – when we were setting a date for some kind of an event – to make sure that it didn't fall on a Jewish holiday and consequently for 17 years they didn't have an event on a Jewish holiday," Jampolsky said. "But I'm not on the board anymore and so the watchdog for that particular issue is gone. But I think that they will be more careful in the future about these things. I think they'll use the multifaith calendar I promised to get them."

While Jampolsky acknowledged that interest in this year's general meeting is significant, with an aggressive race for the board, it is not usually thus.

"It's an annual general meeting," said Jampolsky. "From my experience in the NPA, which is vast, the annual general meetings are lucky to even have a quorum."

Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.

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