CJC News Release: Jewish and Aboriginal communities strengthen ties through CJCPR

Feb 27, 2006 - Jewish and Aboriginal communities strengthen ties through CJCPRInteractive Teleconference Addresses Shared Concerns

Vancouver - Jewish and First Nations leaders discussed residential schools, historical and contemporary discrimination and future opportunities for joint dialogue in a recent teleconference convened by B.C. non-governmental organization Worldviews Strategies.

The teleconference, chaired by Canadian Jewish Congress Pacific Region Chair Mark Weintraub and Chief Robert Joseph, chief of the Gwa wa enuk First Nation and a survivor of the Indian residential schools system, included Aboriginal and Jewish community leadership as well as representatives of NGOs and government.

Each province and territory was represented and many social justice advocates from across Canada, the United States and Europe took part in the call to hear from Aboriginal and Jewish community leaders.

“When we speak of social justice concerns we must first speak of justice for Aboriginal people,” said Weintraub. “Our collective anti-racism work must place at the heart of our concerns the ongoing consequences of an historical massive assault against the spiritual and cultural structures of indigenous people. Our communities have a deep friendship that stems from common historical narratives, determination and hope in the face of pervasive and institutionalized racism and a connection to land that permeates our ancestral culture.”

Chief Joseph noted that the communities are natural allies. “Our pasts have defined our contemporary communities and we can build together not only to heal our spirits, but to help heal the world,” he said. “Each time we reach out to each other the darkness fades a little more.”

The PodCast of the teleconference will be available on the Canadian Jewish Congress website in the coming days. An interactive e-forum and follow up materials are available on the Worldview Strategies website www.worldviewstrategies.com under the “Teleconferences” banner.

CJC acts on matters affecting the status, rights and welfare of the Canadian Jewish community.

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For more information, please contact:

Jeff Bradshaw
Education Director
Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region
604-257-5101
jeffb@cjc.ca
www.cjc.ca

http://www.cjc.ca/template.php?action=news&story=783

University of the Streets Cafe: Reconciliation - Weaving Webs of Community

Reconciliation - Weaving Webs of Community: Conversations About Indigenous and non-Indigenous Relations

Moderator: Jessie Sutherland

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Jan 26 Jewish - First Nations Joint Initiatives

January 26th 2006, 10am PST / 1pm EST

Three years ago, the media focussed on First Nations leader, David Ahenakew's anti-semetic remarks; however, there is another story of collaboration and connection between First Nations and Jewish communities. For example, did you know that Holocaust survivors and Indian residential school survivors have an initiative to learn from each other and teach the world? Or that the Canadian Jewish Congress is hosting an on-going Jewish - First Nations dialogue? Have you heard about a recent Native American peace mission to Israel and Palestine and how these trips are impacting Jewish - First Nations relations in Canada?

During this teleconference participants learned about Jewish - First Nations dialogues about land, genocide, cultural survival, and human rights with Special Guests Mark Weintraub from the Canadian Jewish Congress and Chief Robert Joseph from the Indian Residential School Survivors Society of BC.


Guests: Mark Weintraub and Chief Robert Joseph
Mr. Weintraub is a commercial and estates trial lawyer. He was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1983. He is currently a partner with the Vancouver law firm of Clark, Wilson, a member of the firm's Business Litigation Practice Group and the firm's senior trial lawyer for disputed estates and elder law. For over 15 years, Mark has played a leadership role in the national advocacy organization of Canadian Jewish Congress. Mark has served as National Vice-President and was National Chairman of Community Relations Committee. He has also participated in and led various projects involving CJC and other community organizations related to various public policy issues. During the course of his legal work and community volunteer work, Mark gained experience with the media in several different capacities. He has acted as a Jewish community spokesperson to the media on issues related to antisemitism and Israel. See http://www.cjc.ca/ for more.

Chief Robert Joseph, Kwun Kwun Wha Lee Gei Gee 'Big Thunderbird', is a Hereditary Chief of the Gwa wa enuk First Nation. He is also an Indian Residential School Survivor who spent 10 years at St. Michael's Indian Residential School at Alert Bay on the central coast of British Colombia. He spoke only Kwa Kwala as a six year old boy entering this Residential School. He was beaten many times for speaking his own language and endured other hardship and abuse. He recognizes the destructive impact that this experience had on his life, family and community. This same experience has given him the inspiration to assist aboriginals in seeking hope, healing and reconciliation in his position as Executive Director for the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.


Joseph has spent most of his working life as an advocate for aboriginal people. He has worked for provincial organizations in BC including the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Native Brotherhood of BC, and the First Nations Summit. He has also worked for Tribal Councils like the Nuu-Chah-nulth, Kwakiulth District Council, and Musgamagw Tribal Council. In addition, he has worked for large and small Bands as Band Manager.

Joseph has a broad experience in dealing with public and government institutions.


Joseph also has some experience in media having been the first native reporter for the Vancouver Sun. He also worked on small weekly publications. In addition, he was involved with the aboriginal media including the Native Voice, Indian Voice and Neseika as well as with the Radio Audio Visual Education Network. Joseph has served on numerous charitable organization Boards both Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal. He has served on Credit Union and Hospital Boards. Joseph also strives to be active on a volunteer basis. He has led fund-raising drives both for United Way and Heart Drive in the past.

Recently Joseph has been awarded with an Honourary Doctorate of Law Degree from the University of British Columbia for his distinguished achievements in serving BC and Canada through the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and for preserving the traditions and cultures of the First Nations of BC. He has always sought to bridge the differences brought about by intolerance, lack of understanding, and racism. Recently, as chair of Native American Leadership Alliance for Peace and Reconciliation, Joseph was part of a peace delegation to Israeal and Palestine. Joseph understands that faith, hope and healing for Aboriginals well ultimately require the bringing about of good will between many parties. See http://www.irsss.ca/ for more.


Impressions of Participants

A selection of comments we received via email during or shortly after the teleconference.

• "Here I am to say that was a very impressive way of getting people to talk about sensitive issues with hope and transparency."
• "The presentation about land touched my heart deeply."
• "The work you are doing is so important and so necessary."
• "Wow Jessie! This is awesome!!!" (email sent by a participant during the teleconference)
• "I thought the teleconference a remarkable initiative."
• "I felt there was so much respect and understanding in this teleconference."
• "I admire the work the two speakers had done in terms of understanding each others history and collective pain."

To download or listen to the podcast teleconference, go to: http://www.worldviewstrategies.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=41#pod

Canadian Jewish Congress article

Native Injustice “Template” for Canadian Discrimination: CJCPR Chair In a recent major address to a symposium on hate-motivated crimes, CJC Pacific Region Chair Mark Weintraub urged Canadians to address the festering injustice perpetrated against First Nations in order to facilitate justice for all.

“We need to reverse the tendency to add racism against Aboriginal peoples to the end of the list of concerns and congratulate ourselves for even thinking about these issues,” Weintraub told a packed audience of police, Crown counsel, politicians and others at the forum, which was sponsored by the Justice Institute of B.C. “Rather, we could benefit by considering how relations with Aboriginal peoples perhaps provided a template for how subsequent minority populations have been treated.”

Weintraub spoke of the history of discrimination against Aboriginal Canadians and praised the communities’ patience.

“In light of all this,” Weintraub said, “we should think ourselves fortunate that there still remains a wellspring of generosity within Aboriginal communities to meet any sincere attempt at reconciliation.”

Jewish Independent Editorial

December 2, 2005
Editorial

With a federal election now underway and a Grey Cup under our belts, last week’s first ministers’ meeting on Aboriginal affairs may seem a long time ago already. But the Kelowna conference – and the announcement of compensation for victims of residential schools that came just before the meeting opened – will go down in history as a turning point in this country’s relations with our First Peoples.

The announcement of plans to compensate victims of residential schools and to commemorate their experiences reflects a first step in addressing the problems. Many of the social ills affecting Aboriginal Canadians were bred in the residential schools system. The values that the schools inculcated were intentionally antithetical to those of native Canadians’ traditions. The schools had, among other explicit purposes, the goal of eliminating aboriginal culture and assimilating the students into the dominant European-Canadian culture.

This failed for a range of reasons. The imperialist objective of assimilation was not sustained by any inculcation of alternative values. Having their traditions beaten out of them on a daily basis in the estranged and isolating environment of church-run residential schools, the curriculum that young First Nations people learned from our dominant culture were lessons of violence, coercion, verbal and physical abuse, sexual exploitation and torture.

Like victims of any social catastrophe, the survivors are forever affected by their experiences. The social crises in many First Nations communities – poverty, educational outcomes, addiction, abuse and unemployment among them – can be traced back in varying degrees to the experiences of past abuse of Aboriginal Canadians at the hands of religious, educational and governmental authority figures.

The announcement of an agreement-in-principle for compensation and commemoration of the residential schools experience last week was a prerequisite to the first ministers’ summit that followed. Until we recognize the significance of the residential school system on the trajectory of First Nations’ well being since European contact, we will not be able to sufficiently or fairly address the contemporary challenges. Canada, it seems, has finally recognized this fact.

As this historic process has unfolded, the Canadian Jewish community’s leaders have been vocal in support of the First Nations cause. National and local leaders of Canadian Jewish Congress have gone on record marking this issue as a priority.

“We are pleased that Canada has finally understood its responsibility for a shameful part of our country’s history, and is seeking to rectify its actions,” Canadian Jewish Congress national president Ed Morgan said in a news release on the residential schools agreement.

“Canada has made a crucial and substantive step toward recognizing our national culpability for this grievous historic wrong,” added CJC Pacific Region chair Mark Weintraub.

But why, of all issues, has the treatment of aboriginal Canadians become a core Jewish issue?

The reasons are numerous and can be interpreted in ways both simple and complex.

In a purely self-interested sense, it is in the interest of Jewish Canadians to nurture an environment where historic wrongs are recognized and ameliorated. Sensitivity to the historic wrongs of one people will presumably engender sensitivity to the historical experiences of all.

There are also a variety of complex theological and cultural parallels, which are best left to experts in their respective fields to elucidate. But, in its simplest sense, First Nations welfare is a concern to the Jewish community because at the core of the Jewish tradition is the interdiction to seek justice. As peoples who have both seen their cultures, histories and identities subjected to attempted eradication, Jews and aboriginal Canadians share a unique and dark perspective on human capability.

Canadian Jews support the struggle of First Nations for a variety of reasons, but primarily because it is the just thing to do. This, we believe, is all the reason we need.

http://www.cjc.ca/template.php?action=itn&Story=1602

CJC News Release: CJC welcomes government recognition of residential school abuse victims

November 24, 2005
For immediate release

CJC welcomes government recognition of residential school abuse victims

OTTAWA - Canadian Jewish Congress welcomed the Canadian government’s announcement of plans to compensate Aboriginal Canadians who were abused while attending government-run residential schools, which includes funds for a truth-and-reconciliation commission.

"We are pleased that Canada has finally understood its responsibility for a shameful part of our country’s history, and is seeking to rectify its actions," said Canadian Jewish Congress National President Ed Morgan.

"Canada has made a crucial and substantive step toward recognizing our national culpability for this grievous historic wrong," added CJC Pacific Region Chair Mark Weintraub.

"As this process moves forward, survivors' and Aboriginal voices must be heard in the development and implementation of the programs being created on their behalf. The Jewish community will certainly lend its unqualified support to authentic reconciliation," he noted.

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For more information, contact:

Wendy Lampert
National Director of Communications

Canadian Jewish Congress

416-631-5844 (office)
416-845-4674 (cell)

wlampert@on.cjc.ca

www.cjc.ca

Voiceonline.com: Is the RCMP doing enough to stop hate propaganda by scumbags?

IN FOCUS WITH RATTAN

#3. Is the RCMP doing enough to stop hate propaganda by scumbags?

What on earth are the Mounties doing about incidents of hate crime against Indo-Canadians and other minorities? The latest racist incident against Indo-Canadians, Jews and gays took place in Langley and the RCMP kept it a secret until someone who also received the hate material in their mailbox contacted the media last weekend. Why didn't the Langley RCMP inform the media so that other victims could come forward. WHY? Decent white Langley residents expressed their disgust at the flyers that denounce mixed race marriages, homosexuality and minorities. Langley RCMP told the local media that there had been some complaints about the hate flyers and claimed that this material had first been distributed throughout that city and was now being distributed in the township. Meanwhile, the Canadian Jewish Congress strongly condemned extremist literature that has been distributed in the Fraser Valley. It said it had spoken about the flyers with police, who say their content targets immigrants and immigration. They also say the flyers appear to originate from a Virginia-based white supremacist group. Police have not yet identified those responsible for distributing the material locally. "All non-Aboriginal Canadians are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, which makes this extreme anti-immigration material seem quite absurd," said MARK WEINTRAUB, Chair of Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region. "The danger lies in the fact that this type of clearly mean-spirited attack exploits ignorance and pre-existing prejudice," he added. Weintraub noted that it is also distressing that the materials appear also to highlight a hate-based Internet site. He said the provincial Hate Crime Team will investigate to conclude whether the flyers promote hate and will determine charges under the Criminal Code accordingly. "I am proud that here in Canada we have established a culture of respect for diversity. We cannot permit those with ignorant minds and hard hearts to harm our fellow Canadians. CJC, Pacific Region, is confident that the police will identify the perpetrators in this case, and that they will be dealt with appropriately under the law," he said. Well, let's wait and see what the RCMP do in this case.

http://www.voiceonline.com/voice/051112/JUSTMINUTE.php

Western Jewish Bulletin: Thanks for the kind words

January 10, 2003

Thanks for the kind words

Letters

This letter was originally sent to Chief Dora Wilson of the Hagwilget Village Council and is reprinted with permission.

Dear Chief Wilson:

I received a copy of your letter written to Chief Coon Come regarding Mr. Ahenakew. Currently, I am a national vice- president of Canadian Jewish Congress, being the representative from the Pacific Region (British Columbia/Yukon/Northwest Territories and Nunavut) to our national board.

I was involved in the deliberations of our regional board to craft an open letter to Premier Gordon Campbell condemning the recently held referendum and I had the pleasure of meeting with Chief Stewart Phillip at the union's open house, at which time we had an excellent exchange and reaffirmed our collective commitment to ensuring that the Ahenakew incident would in fact be used to strengthen relations between our communities. As such, I am somewhat aware of relations between our communities' leadership. Your letter is most appreciated and is representative of the overwhelming views of aboriginal leaders. Please be assured that our community knows this well.

Your letter truly speaks to the shock that Mr. Ahenakew's statements caused. Your understanding of the hurt and concern to our community was powerfully expressed. Indeed, the reaction we have received from many aboriginal leaders and individuals has been overwhelming and our national office will be making a public statement to this effect soon.

One of the unfortunate consequences of Mr. Ahenakew's statements is that they had the potential to give those in the larger community a purported justification for saying that racism exists everywhere and not just in the white community. The achievement of aboriginal goals is in fact an important goal to us as a community and therefore we were troubled not only by the expression of anti-Semitism but also by the potential setback to the aboriginal community.

Without minimizing in any way the Ahenakew affair, we will not let our focus be shifted from the main centres of anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews today. As I write this letter, our community is in mourning by reason of another attack on the Jewish nation, which just occurred last weekend, resulting in 22 deaths and more than 100 injured. Your letter of understanding, referring to the fact that Jews are in "constant alert for acts of terror," is comfort at a time when there are some who would attempt to justify these murderous acts as legitimate expressions of political aspirations.

While there is still much work to be done in both of our respective communities to advance greater understanding, it can be said with certainty that the bonds that we have created through working together in the past are strong enough to endure this incident and indeed have been strengthened through your expressions of denunciation and shock and reaffirmations of hope.

Many in the aboriginal community suffer each day from policies rooted in institutional racism and colonialism. The deaths arising from poverty and poor health care, which occur every day in Canada, ought to be ever-present in our consciousness. We are also aware that this current travesty of policy is only part of the contemporary reality – the indigenous peoples' survival in the face of over 500 years of attempted physical and cultural genocide is testament to the strength of your history, your traditions and the universal human spirit. In this way both of our people's have much in common.

Mark Weintraub
National Vice-President
Canadian Jewish Congress


http://www.jewishindependent.ca/Archives/Jan03/archives03Jan10-09.html