A high-ranking Montreal city councillor is not backing down from his apparent endorsement of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, nor has Mayor Valérie Plante dissociated her administration from his views.
B’nai Brith Canada called out Alex Norris for his “liking” of a Facebook promotion for a Feb. 17 BDS France online event headlined “The Support by Jewish organizations for Palestine and BDS” posted by Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) and linked to the hashtag #EndIsraeliApartheid. (The conversation was hosted on Twitter’s new audio feature, Spaces.)
B’nai Brith wrote to Plante asking whether Norris’s public association with BDS is condoned by her administration, which it says has resisted adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
Norris is the majority leader on council of the governing Projet Montréal and a non-voting executive committee member.
Responding to The CJN, Norris emailed: “My firm opposition to all forms of antisemitism, bigotry, racism and intolerance is a matter of public record, as is my support for the rights of Jews, Palestinians and, indeed, all peoples to live in peace, free from violence, military occupation or human rights violations.
“Many councillors take personal stands on human rights issues, locally and internationally. That right to freedom of expression and freedom of association is protected by the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights.
“The beauty of municipal politics is that it allows us to transcend our differences on national and international issues and to work together for the common good locally. That is what I intend to continue doing.”
B’nai Brith has not received a response from Plante to its Feb. 21 letter asking for “clarification” of her administration’s position on BDS, which the organization regards as antisemitic.
Councillor Sonny Moroz of the opposition Ensemble Montréal made a similar inquiry of Plante at last week’s virtual council meeting. Josefina Blanco, the executive committee member responsible for diversity, replied that councillors are entitled to their personal opinions and that this was not a municipal matter.
Moroz, the sole Jewish councillor, said he was “shocked and appalled” that Norris has identified with “a virulent anti-Israel group,” referring apparently to IJV. Moroz described BDS as “not accept(ing) the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic homeland.”
He alleged this was not an isolated incident in Norris’s online activity. B’nai Brith has since discovered a second instance of Norris liking a pro-BDS post.
First elected in 2009 in the Plateau Mont Royal borough, Norris is a former Montreal Gazette journalist.
B’nai Brith’s letter to Plante asks if her administration is in agreement with Norris’s position on BDS and, if not, will he be dismissed as majority leader. It also wants to know what her administration’s view is on Amnesty International’s recent characterization of Israel as practising apartheid.
“The BDS movement feels reinvigorated by the widely discredited Amnesty International report,” stated Marvin Rotrand, who became national director of B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights last fall after 39 years as a city councillor, most recently sitting in opposition.
“The Canadian government rejects it. Bizarrely, the City of Montreal is taking a different path with a prominent leader liking a post that endorses the movement. Mayor Plante must set the record straight and address the perception of pervasive antisemitism in her administration.”
B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn added that if Norris’s views are not representative of the administration, “he is compromised and should be replaced.”
Côte St. Luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein also asked Montreal to clarify its position at a meeting of the agglomeration council, the regional body overseeing shared services among municipalities on the island of Montreal. Norris acts as the city’s spokesperson on that council.
Relations have been strained between the organized Jewish community and the Plante administration for the past two years over its reluctance to support the IHRA definition.
Both B’nai Brith and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs have pressed the city to adopt the definition, which Canada did in 2019 and the Coalition Avenir Québec government did last year.
In January 2020, then opposition leader Lionel Perez angrily withdrew his IHRA motion when Plante suggested deferring the matter to a standing committee for further study, the Commission de la présidence du conseil, of which Norris is a member.
Last spring Perez proposed a bipartisan motion, which the administration rejected citing the differing opinions it had received on the IHRA definition.
IJV mounted a strong campaign against the city’s adoption of the definition, which it terms “flawed” because it includes vilification of Israel and denial of the state’s legitimacy as examples of antisemitism.
Plante, who was elected to a second term in November, has attempted to show her administration is concerned about antisemitism.
In addition to continuing to host a Yom ha-Shoah commemoration at city hall—pre-pandemic—she posted a video online this January on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, underlining her administration’s determination to combat antisemitism and awareness of the Shoah. She also more recently welcomed the news of the Montreal Holocaust Museum’s planned move to new premises on St. Laurent Boulevard.
