Faculty for Palestine responds to pseudo-parliamentary committee report:

[JohnyCanuck]

CPCCA, campuses and criminalizing criticism of Israel

This month, a serious attack was made against free speech in Canada. A pseudo-parliamentary committee calling itself the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA) issued a report calling on the federal government to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that would criminalize criticism of the state of Israel. The report claims to support free speech and open debate around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but its recommendations aim to silence pro-Palestinian voices, especially on campuses. The CPCCA's biased processes and dubious conclusions contradict its own argument for balanced debate, and make a mockery of the notion of disinterested parliamentary inquiry.

The CPCCA was founded in 2009. While it included MPs from all parliamentary parties, the CPCCA is not an official parliamentary committee. It nonetheless draws upon the resources and authority of Parliament, while refusing to hold open debate in keeping with due process.

The CPCCA's mandate was to define, analyze and address anti-Semitism. However, the coalition formed its core conclusions before beginning its inquiry. Its founding documents emphasized the so-called "new anti-Semitism," associating it with the global movement for Palestinian human rights.

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Most who seriously challenged the CPCCA were simply excluded from the so-called "public" hearings. Faculty for Palestine -- a network of 450 faculty members from Canadian universities and colleges -- for example, was not invited to discuss our written submission despite the CPCCA's assertion that the "new anti-Semitism" is especially concentrated on campuses. Co-chair Mario Silva explained these exclusions as follows: "I personally feel I didn't want to give a platform to individuals who had no time for us. Why should we have time for them?" It is no wonder that Bloc Québécois MPs withdrew from the CPCCA in 2010, citing the refusal of the steering committee to hear groups with opposing viewpoints, including from organizations such as the Canadian Arab Federation.

http://rabble.ca/news/2011/07/faculty-palestine-responds-pseudo-parliamentary-committee-report-cpcca-campuses-and-cri