B’nai Brith Canada is deeply concerned after learning that a federal grant was used to produce a guide instructing Canadian Muslims on how to vote in last Monday’s national election.
The “Canadian Muslim Voting Guide: Federal Election 2019” was released by the Canadian Islamophobia Industry Research Project at Wilfred Laurier University on Oct. 18, just three days before Canadians went to the polls. Its front cover acknowledges support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), a federal agency that assigns research grants.
Disturbingly, one of the six “key issues” for Canadian Muslims unilaterally selected by the authors of the Voting Guide is support for the anti-Israel and antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement (pages 18-20). The Voting Guide purports to assign a “Fail” grade to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for recognizing that BDS is a form of antisemitism that harms Jewish students on Canadian campuses, and gives the same failing grade to Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer.
The Voting Guide also alleges that “Zionist ideologies play a prominent role” in fomenting Islamophobia in Canada (page 6). No evidence is cited for this absurd and dangerous proposition.
In 2017, B’nai Brith condemned SSHRC funding for an art display at Western University that glorified the Palestinian intifada, or terrorist uprising. The organization has written to Navdeep Bains, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, expressing concern over government funding for the Voting Guide. Other relevant government officials also have been made aware of B’nai Brith’s concerns.
