TORONTO — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told an appreciative audience of more than 700 people at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s annual Words & Deeds Leadership Award Dinner that she’ll be leading a trade mission to Israel next spring.
“Many of you have asked me this question so many times and I haven’t been able to give a concrete answer,” she said. “But I’m happy to tell you I will lead this mission and will be joined by a delegation of business[people]. We’ll meet with leaders from business and government and will deepen our partnership and find areas of further collaboration between Ontario and Israel,” Wynne said.
Wynne was the recipient of this year’s national Words & Deeds Leadership Award.
During her keynote address at the June 22 gala, held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, she said Ontario and Israel will each invest $3 million in partnerships and collaboration to promote trade and business between them.
Shimon Fogel, CEO of CIJA, told The CJN that the organization chose to honour Wynne because, in a general sense, she’s introduced “a new tone and approach to doing politics and public policy” insofar as she’s very quickly established relationships with colleagues at all levels of government and has shown “a propensity to engage in serious public policy issues without the kind of acrimony usually attached to these things.”
For the Jewish community specifically, he said Wynne has “shown sensitivity on a number of files, not least of which is the commitment she’s expressed to Ontario-Israel relations.”
Referring to the Ontario government’s recent announcement that it will open an office in Israel to help promote business and trade between the two jurisdictions, Fogel noted that Wynne’s decision to establish a “robust trade presence” in Israel has been extremely helpful to the Jewish state, particularly in the context of growing support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
Drawing on the theme of “words and deeds,” in her speech, Wynne first spoke about the vast discrepancy that has existed in Canada, where the words of the treaties promising respect, shared benefits and the right to self-govern to indigenous people have become hollow, “leaving the words on the page and these communities mired in social and economic despair.”
As a social activist in the 1990s, she said, she used words to “change the hearts and minds” of people regarding issues close to her as a woman, a mother and a lesbian.
She realizes that at the time she didn’t always frame her arguments as economic ones, but now she understands that “building a society of pluralistic harmony is every bit an economic project as a social one. Because when people are disenfranchised… that has an economic cost.”
Ontario’s economic agenda reflects that, she said, as it seeks investment in de-stigmatizing and better treating mental health issues, increases wages for personal support workers and works to end youth homelessness.
Further, her government is looking to “build on the strength of connections with diverse societies all over the world, pursue new markets… and understand every one of Ontario’s diverse communities has much to offer in building Ontario up,” something she said the Jewish community has been proving for generations.
She concluded by emphasizing the importance of words and deeds. “With words we can inspire deeds and with deeds we take actions that by their nature speak louder than words. By doing both we advance our collective cause for equality and diversity.”
Fogel said that on the social policy front, Wynne has been a real partner in understanding the need for social service agencies that help society’s most vulnerable – including within the Jewish community – to have continued or new government funding.
He also said, “she’s pledged to work with us to find ways for the provincial government to contribute to finding healthier, less toxic environments on campuses.”
He added that Wynne is the first provincial premier to be honoured at the Words & Deeds Dinner and that, in part, this reflects a conscious choice on the part of the organizers “to bring more local resonance and relevance to this kind of event. There’s a cross-section of Toronto and Ontario society represented here tonight, and it speaks to the kind of relations we’ve sought to build and continue to grow.”
Prominent attendees of the gala included a host of mayors from different municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area, various police chiefs, city councillors and Justin Trudeau, national leader of the Liberal party.
Wynne’s speech was preceded by a dinner and a number of speakers, including Larry Tanenbaum, honorary co-chair of the dinner, Morris Perlis, chair of UJA, Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, senior rabbi at Beth Tzedec Congregation and Father Damian McPherson, of the Archdiocese of Toronto, who touted the work being done by CIJA and UJA Federation and emphasized the shared Canadian and Jewish values of inclusivity and pluralism.
The Words & Deeds Leadership Award Dinner takes place in Toronto and Winnipeg, a joint undertaking by CIJA and the local Jewish federation, and is designed to recognize community leaders who have exemplified outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes, tolerance, inclusion and civil discourse in Canadian society.
Past award recipients have included Gord Nixon, CEO of RBC Financial Group and the Richardson family in Winnipeg.
