The unofficial race is on for one of the safest Liberal seats in Quebec and the one with the highest number of Jewish voters after MNA David Birnbaum (D’Arcy McGee) announced he will not seek re-election in the Oct. 3 provincial election.
First elected in 2014 and a former executive director of Canadian Jewish Congress’s (CJC) Quebec region, Birnbaum, 66, is the sole Jewish MNA and has been a voice for issues of specific concern to the Jewish community. He will continue to sit until the election.
Birnbaum is the ninth Liberal MNA to announce they are not running again. Support for the party, currently the official opposition, has been slipping in the polls, while the governing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) maintains a comfortable lead.
“It is after much reflection and with mixed emotions that I informed (Liberal leader Dominique Anglade) of my decision,” Birnbaum said in a Facebook post. “I won’t spare any effort in fighting for you over these remaining six months.”
In his letter to party colleagues, Birnbaum wrote: “Political life is at once fascinating, demanding, rewarding and stimulating…I am proud of the contributions I have made on behalf of the residents of Côte St. Luc, Côte des Neiges, Snowdon and Hampstead and, to a degree, I hope, to all of Quebec.
“I am gratified to have played a part in striving for a proud Liberal vision of Quebec within Canada that is deeply committed to strengthening this unique and wonderful French-speaking corner of North America, while including and protecting the place and future of all non-francophone Quebecers in that ongoing journey.”
Birnbaum says he decided to retire from politics four months ago and his announcement now is not related to the awkward position he has found himself in the past couple of weeks for his support for students in English CEGEPs having to take three core courses in French.
Birnbaum, the Liberals’ critic for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, seconded an additional clause to the CAQ government’s proposed strengthening of the French-language laws, Bill 96. He sits on the committee presently studying the bill line-by-line.
The Liberal proposal has outraged the anglophone community and the English CEGEPs, which were not consulted and say it jeopardizes anglophone students’ academic success.
Liberal leader Dominique Anglade has asked the government to withdraw the clause, which expanded on the CAQ’s original idea that the three French course requirements apply only to francophone and allophone students attending English CEGEPs. The CAQ is hesitating on acceding to Anglade’s request.
Birnbaum, who had always been more critical of Bill 96 than his own party, has since said his suggestion was a “mistake” and has asked the CAQ to “do the right thing by our kids and fix the amendment” before it is put to a vote.
Birnbaum had earlier fought for the protection of access to English health care, which is feared to be threatened by the bill. In December, he presented a petition with 4,500 signatures to maintain the provincial committee overseeing that right, but the CAQ abolished it anyway.
He is also the critic for mental health, a subject on which he has been outspoken and frank, and previously for Indigenous affairs.
Before going into politics, Birnbaum was executive director of the Quebec Association of English School Boards.
A native of Chomedey, a suburb north of Montreal that had a vibrant Jewish community, Birnbaum began his career as a reporter for the Montreal Gazette. He later worked for Alliance Quebec, a now defunct English-language rights lobby, before moving to CJC.
In his first election in 2014, Birnbaum received 92 per cent of the vote, the highest majority in the province. In 2018 that had been reduced to 74 per cent.
D’Arcy McGee, which historically has had a Jewish majority, has elected a Jewish MNA since the riding was created in 1966 and a Liberal, except for Robert Libman’s 1989 upset victory for the now disbanded pro-Anglo rights Equality Party.
A 2017 modification of the riding’s boundaries, extending its territory further into Côte des Neiges, has reduced the proportion of residents who are Jewish, something Birnbaum fought at the time.
Birnbaum, who has called himself “a proud secular Jew,” nevertheless, wore a kippah in the National Assembly while delivering a motion on Yom ha-Shoah in 2018, provoking a barb from then Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée.
Birnbaum, however, has been muted in his criticism of the CAQ’s secularism law, Bill 21, passed in 2019. Most recently, at a B’nai Brith Canada virtual event in January Birnbaum warned opponents of the controversial law to “respect” Quebec.
Marvin Rotrand, national director of B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights, who organized that Canada-wide gathering of cultural community representatives, has only praise for Birnbaum.
“He was not a flamboyant politician, but he was well-spoken and articulate, he listened to people, was very responsive and worked well with many groups,” said Rotrand, who frequently crossed paths with Birnbaum during his long time as a Montreal city councillor for the Snowdon district.
“David wasn’t only interested in Côte St. Luc and Hampstead; he was very visible in Côte des Neiges and Snowdon and was sensitive to their multicultural and multiracial character,” said Rotrand.
He said Birnbaum had assisted him in his efforts to raise awareness of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic and with getting extra resources for the Montreal police hate crimes unit.
On Jewish matters, Rotrand said Birnbaum had been helpful in getting the Quebec government to endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism last year.
“I think David had the respect of Benoit Charette (minister responsible for fighting racism) and was successful in convincing him on these (Jewish) issues. It’s a loss for the community, but he is still relatively young and can still do lot of good.”
