Address by Minister Freeland to the World Jewish Congress’s 15th Plenary Assembly

April 24, 2017 - New York City, New York

Check against delivery. This speech has been translated in accordance with the Government of Canada’s official languages policy and edited for posting and distribution in accordance with its communications policy.

I want to start by thanking the President of the World Jewish Congress, Ambassador Ron Lauder. Thank you very much.

I also want to acknowledge David Cape, the Chair of CIJA [Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs].

And I am joined by one of our leading ambassadors, Marc-André Blanchard.

We have already heard high praise for someone I am honoured to call my friend, teacher and mentor, and that is the great Jewish Canadian, Irwin Cotler. Irwin is here too.

And I want to acknowledge the second person who really got me to be here today, and that is my good friend of now more than two decades, Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, who is the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine.

It is a pleasure and an honour for me to be here today. Thank you for the warm welcome and the invitation to participate in this assembly. As Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, I want to point out the importance of what is being discussed here.

Yesterday was Yom HaShoah [Holocaust remembrance day].

I want to join you in commemorating the 6 million Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust, as well as the Romani, the disabled, the members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer community and countless others.

When Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion first inaugurated the 27th of Nisan as an annual memorial day, the date was chosen to commemorate the annihilation of Warsaw’s Jewish community, which before the war was the second-largest Jewish community in the world, second only to the great Jewish community of this city—New York.

This day reminds us all that we must never forget this terrible chapter in human history and must never let it repeat itself, nor must we stand idly by when human rights are violated, wherever that may be. There can be no place in the world for prejudice, violence, intolerance, genocide, persecution. We have learned that lesson the hard way. Let us all say—and let’s really mean it—never again.

I am truly honoured to speak here to this gathering of the World Jewish Congress. Since its creation in 1936, this organization has proudly, bravely and effectively fought for the rights of the Jewish people and Jewish communities around the world, and in doing so, has upheld universal human rights. Our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had the privilege of meeting with President Ron Lauder [of the Congress] in October last year, and the Prime Minister told me what an important conversation that was, as they talked about values shared by the World Jewish Congress and Canada and the need for us to work together in fighting anti-Semitism around the world.

I also wanted to start by thanking the World Jewish Congress for your very strong statement last January condemning the horrific murders of Muslim worshippers in Québec. Thank you. That meant a lot to me, it meant a lot to Canadians, and I thought you put it extremely well, so I would like to quote to you what you said to Canada.

“We must not be intimated by terrorism, but cherish our freedom, including the freedom to worship. We must defend each other, and we must look after one another: one religious community after the other, one country after the other. The scourge of terrorism won’t be defeated unless we are united in our resolve to defeat it.”

I could not agree with you more. I thank you for that important statement, and I am so proud of the response of Canadians, including Jewish Canadians, to that vile attack.

In keeping with the spirit of that message, I’d like to speak to you today about all that we can do to promote tolerance and inclusion and to defend the rights of everyone to live their lives free of hatred and discrimination. I know this is a topic central to the agenda of the World Jewish Congress, and it is central to my agenda and to the agenda of the Government of Canada.

We talked just now of the Shoah, and unfortunately, so many years later, we still see incidents of hatred against religious groups. I am sad to say that Jewish people are the religious group in Canada most likely to be targeted for hate crimes. That is a shame and is something we have to talk about.

These hate crimes can take many forms, whether vandalism, graffiti, hate propaganda or racist online commentary. In my own riding in downtown Toronto, the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre was recently subject to a deplorable bomb threat. So this is happening. It is real, and we have to stand up against it.

According to our most recent data, 17 percent of all hate incidents in Canada target Jewish people, despite the fact that the Jewish population is less than 1 percent of the Canadian population. This is totally unacceptable. The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring the safety and security of Canada’s Jewish community.

And you see how great our community is. You guys all know it because you see what a great delegation we have here at this assembly. I am so proud of them.

In its most recent budget last month, the Government of Canada doubled the funding for a security infrastructure program that helps communities protect themselves against hate-motivated crimes by contributing to equipment such as security cameras and alarm systems. We have worked closely with the Jewish community, including in my riding and other affected communities, to ensure that the program responds to their needs.

Recent incidents are a jarring reminder for us in Canada that the inclusive and generous society we want to build is a precious and delicate work in progress and one that none of us can take for granted. Programs like this one are important initiatives that protect the right of all Canadians to be free to practise their faiths and their cultures.

In Canada, we know and believe that our diversity is our strength. That is absolutely a core national value. And the government is extremely concerned about growing xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism, worldwide, rooted in the misguided belief that diversity is a threat.

That is why last September, along with Israel, the United States and the EU, Canada co-hosted at the UN a global high-level forum on anti-Semitism. It is why Canada is a proud member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, along with 30 other states, where we promote Holocaust education and research. And it is why, as you have just heard from Ambassador Bokova [Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO], in September Canada announced a $600,000 project with UNESCO and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to improve education about genocide. Canada is proud of that role.

Let me now turn to another sadly urgent topic, and that is our job of countering violent extremism. It is something that we need to do at home, and it is something that we need to do around the world.

Like you, I am a big fan of Irwin Cotler’s, and so I will quote an important speech he gave that has guided our counterterrorism approach. He pointed out that a principled approach to terrorism, security and human rights starts with the recognition that “there is no contradiction between the protection of security and the protection of human rights.”

That is a very important point, because we have to remember that, at its core, terrorism is an assault on the security of a democracy and the most fundamental rights of its citizens—the right to life, liberty and security. Counterterrorism promotes and protects the security of our democracies and fundamental human rights in the face of this threat. As Irwin has noted, “Counterterrorism is the protection of human security in the most profound sense.”

He has also pointed out that an equally important principle is that the enforcement of antiterrorism efforts must always follow the rule of law. No individual or group should be singled out for differential and discriminatory treatment. Torture must always and everywhere be condemned. These are guiding principles for Canada’s counterterrorism approach, as true today as they were a decade ago, Irwin, when you first laid them out.

Grounded in a human rights-based approach, our government’s work is focused on evidence-based support for prevention and intervention. In order to better prevent and intervene at home in Canada, we are establishing a new office for community outreach and countering radicalization. As an open, pluralistic, democratic society, Canada is committed to becoming a world leader in countering radicalization. We really believe we have to do this right at home, and we are committed to doing it.

Preventing radicalization often starts most effectively at the community level, when we work with local leaders to develop early intervention tailored to local conditions. We are absolutely committed to fighting terrorism at home, but of course much of the threat is beyond Canada’s borders.

Violent extremism is global, and the Middle East is a region of particular concern. That is why our government has announced an investment of over $1.6 billion over three years in our Middle East strategy. This is a comprehensive, integrated, sustained effort, together with our allies, to defeat Daesh and to help the children, women and men affected.

Canada, working with our partners, is fully committed to this campaign, and I want to assure you—and sometimes, we forget to say this loudly enough—that this is a fight we are winning, and it is a fight that we will win. We are on the right side of history. Daesh is a hateful, backward-looking death cult. We can and will prevail in the battle against it. We need to have the courage of our convictions.

On Syria, I do want to underscore that our government is fully supportive of the targeted and limited U.S. strike. Our prime minister came out and said that in Parliament the next day. That was an important act, and we fully support our ally. And we also believe it is important to note the moral responsibility that Assad’s two chief patrons, Russia and Iran, bear for the use of chemical weapons. And it’s important for us, as the international community, to put pressure on those two countries. That is very much something that Canada is engaged in.

In our Middle East strategy, we are also making meaningful contributions to stabilize Lebanon and Jordan, not least by welcoming now more than 40,000 Syrian refugees to Canada. These are people who are new Canadians. They are permanent residents. Their home is Canada now.

I mention this particular Canadian contribution to the region because, as we all know, the stability of these countries is inextricably linked to the security of Israel, and that is a core international objective of Canada’s.

Since 2014, our counterterrorism program has contributed $14 million in work with other countries to counter violent extremism. We are now looking to invest an additional $13 million to prevent radicalization, with a particular focus on the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Part of combatting terrorism is cutting the financial networks. One specific Canadian initiative in this regard is our command of Combined Task Force 150, intercepting trafficking activities at sea that are essential to the survival of extremist groups. We contribute to this multinational force to promote maritime security in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman. When Canada works to counter extremism and terrorism, particularly in the Middle East, Israel is always a natural partner and a close ally. Israel is also a significant motivation. Programs like these contribute to Israel’s safety and security, and that is a core Canadian international objective.

Let me say Canada is a strong ally and close friend of the Jewish state, continuing a mutually beneficial partnership that has advanced the shared values and interests of our two democracies for almost 70 years. Today, we cooperate closely in public security and defence as well as trade—and as trade minister, I was working on updating our free trade agreement with Israel; we are nearly finished—investment, innovation and education.

Our people are also deeply linked. Over 390,000 Jewish people live in Canada—the fourth-largest Jewish community in the world. But as a proud Canadian, could I say I think it’s the best one also? Much of that Jewish community makes its home in my constituency in downtown Toronto, which I have the privilege of representing as a member of Parliament. And I am so proud of the Canadian Jewish community.

There are also 20,000 Canadians living and working in Israel. Next week, it will be my honour to observe Israel’s Independence Day, hosted by Israeli ambassador Nimrod Barkan in Ottawa at his embassy.

Let me conclude by assuring you of this: Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel. We have an unwavering, ironclad commitment to the security of Israel and its neighbours. We support Israel’s right to security and its right to live in peace, and we are committed to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East. We stand with Israel and with Jewish communities in Canada and around the world, and we recognize that, sadly, now more than ever, support is needed, and it is important to stand up and say it out loud.

I hope we can all leave this meeting with a renewed commitment to promoting peace and inclusion, fighting hatred and discrimination and terror. There is a lot of work to be done, and I look forward to working closely with the World Jewish Congress and with all of you in the days and years to come.

Thank you.

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