Multicultural coalition meets to combat hate—but Liberal MNA David Birnbaum warns them to tread carefully when it comes to Quebec’s Bill 21
Liberal MNA David Birnbaum warned those outside Quebec to temper their criticism of the province’s secularism law, saying that Quebec has “no lessons to learn from other Canadians on racism and antisemitism” during a national forum on combating hate organized by B’nai Brith Canada. Bill 21, in force since 2019, prohibits public servants deemed to […]
Quebec orders synagogues (and all places of worship) to enforce vaccination mandates
Synagogues, like all places of worship in Quebec, will have to require proof of vaccination from anyone attending services as of Dec. 20. They will also have to limit capacity to 50 percent, up to a maximum of 250 people in the building and they must be masked, even when seated. On Dec. 16, the […]
Fiction on Soviet Jewish life and Canada during the Holocaust win 2021 Quebec Writers’ Federation Literary Awards
Two books of fiction with strong Jewish themes won 2021 Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF) Literary Awards, which recognize the best recent works in English by authors in the province. Love Like Water, Love Like Fire by Mikhail Iossel received the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and Room For One More by Monique Polak took […]
A road trip to Quebec—into Canada’s earliest Jewish history, with Robert Walker
After a seven-hour drive east of Toronto, I arrived in Trois-Rivières. I had finally started my Quebec road trip; a brief respite of hiking, sightseeing and enjoying the vast wilderness of La Belle Province. I parked my car, and stepped outside, my legs feeling numb from driving all day, and I began walking around the […]
A historian who believes French Quebec’s attitude toward Jews is more nuanced than you think
Antisemitism was not endemic among francophone Quebecers in the period before the Second World War, Pierre Anctil argues in his newly translated History of the Jews in Quebec, taking issue with other historians’ depictions. “Contrary to the position articulated by Irving Abella and Harold Troper in None is Too Many, it would not be accurate […]
Jewish lawyers’ group charges that Quebec language bill threatens civil rights
A Jewish lawyers’ association warns that Bill 96, the Quebec government’s sweeping reforms to strengthen the French language, threatens the civil rights of non-francophones “Seldom has proposed legislation impacted access to justice, equality before the law, and the most fundamental principles underpinning our legal system to the extent that Bill 96 does,” the Lord Reading […]
New consul general revisits idea of a Quebec office in Israel
Anyone who wants to do business with the “startup nation” has to be on the ground.
Obituary: Iraqi-born writer Naim Kattan brought cultures together in Quebec
Identity, exile and the search for belonging and love were frequent themes in his writing.
Quebec government adopts IHRA anti-Semitism definition
It’s the third province to adopt the definition.
Motion defining anti-Semitism blocked by Quebec opposition party
“I am appalled and troubled by the refusal of QS (Quebec Solidaire) to adopt this motion.”
