Marvin Rotrand

CSL declares a Filipino Heritage Month

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By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Côte St. Luc council passed a resolution at its October council meeting declaring June to be Filipino Heritage Month in the city.

On hand were numerous prominent members of the Montreal Filipino community, as well as Marvin Rotrand of United Against Hate Canada.

Councillor Mike Cohen, who read the resolution, pointed out that in 2018, the Canadian government adopted a motion recognizing the contributions of the Filipino community to Canada, and “the richness of the Filipino language and culture.” The federal resolution suggested local jurisdictions do the same.

The CSL resolution recognized the contributions of Filipino residents. Mayor Mitchell Brownstein pointed out that 2,000 members of the Filipino community live in Côte St. Luc, “and I hope it continues to grow, 2,000 is not enough!

“Keep on coming to our city, we enjoy your presence and we’re happy you participate in our activities.”

Al Abdon, a longtime Filipino community leader and chairman of the Filipino Heritage Society of Montreal, said he and United Against Hate collaborated on a project to promote Filipino Heritage Month, and to encourage the twinning of Canadian cities with Philippines municipalities. Abdon expressed gratitude for the city passing the resolution.

“This resolution will be extremely meaningful to the community. I would like to invite all the council members to attend our Global Zoom call planned for next June with United Against Hate Canada,” which has highlighted the historic friendship between the Jewish and Filipino communities, including taking in Jews fleeing the Holocaust.

Rotrand told The Suburban that last August, a Zoom meeting was held in which United Against Hate Canada and the Filipino Heritage Society invited the public to discuss next year’s 20th anniversary of the Montreal-Manila friendship agreement, which came about through Rotrand’s outreach as a Montreal councillor and involves twinning agreements.

“Out of that Zoom meeting came requests [from members of the delegation in CSL Oct. 21], why don’t we try to promote Filipino heritage right throughout Canada. We wrote to 60 Mayors and got an enormous response and a lot of interest. We held a call on Aug. 29 addressed by three MPs, members of four provincial legislatures, a dozen mayors and councillors, and school commissioners, and we are now getting dozens of cities across Canada adopting these types of motions. Côte St. Luc is first. It’s a national movement.” n

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United Against Hate group officially launches

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By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

The nation-wide United Against Hate group founded by former Snowdon councillor and former B’nai Brith Canada League For Human Rights director Marvin Rotrand, active since January, has officially launched.

Rotrand, the Director General of the organization, told a Zoom press conference that the group is now registered as a non-profit and that June 19 the official launch date is also the birth anniversary of Dr. José Rizal, a national hero of the Philippines, “someone who stood for racial equality and brotherhood, and good relations between nations,” and fought against antisemitism.

Rotrand said United Against Hate will now accelerate its activities, and said the organization was created to “fill a void.

“We wanted to promote cross-cultural dialogue and highlight the contributions of Canada’s diverse population to the country’s success,” he said. “We felt that no other group was doing what we wished to do. We are non-governmental, non-partisan, multicultural, multi-racial and devoted to combating hate by building bridges. We leverage the strength of communities to aid each other.”

The group’s mission includes “promoting cross cultural communication with a focus on dialogue between different religious and racial minorities; combating the unprecedented upsurge in antisemitism witnessed in Canada over the past months; promoting dialogue between Jews and Muslims in Canada and highlighting the contributions of the many diverse communities to Canada’s well being and success including promoting the heritage months of racial and religious minorities.”

United Against Hate’s board members are: Perry Balendra – Former President, Tamil Association of Canada; Will Barclay – Academic, former Research and Data Analyst at B’nai Brith Canada; Frank Baylis – former Member of Parliament for Pierrefonds – Dollard; Alton Brooks – former Board member Jamaica Canadian Association of Ontario; Bashir Hussein – President, Council of South Asian Communities; Ellie Israel – School Commissioner at the English Montreal School Board; Dougald Lamont, former MLA and outgoing leader Manitoba Liberal Party, Norberto Mandin – Founder, CPRM Community Radio, Luzviminda Mazzone – President, Federation of Filipino Canadian Associations and Gemma Raeburn Baynes – President, Playmas Caribbean Cultural Association.

Rotrand said his group has already called for a second national summit to combat antisemitism, issued an open letter signed by 200 prominent Canadians “demanding that the Government of Canada act in light of an unprecedented wave of hate aimed at Jews seen over the last months,” has been “asked to speak at Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day by Tamil organizations, collaborated with Bangladeshi groups to urge Canada to continue to provide support for Rohingya refugees and is fostering links with the Cypriot community in advance of the 50th anniversary of the invasion and continued occupation of that country by the Republic of Türkiye,” and working with provinces to promote better Holocaust education, working with the Iranian diaspora to support a Canadian ban om the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” amongst other accomplishments.

(As the Zoom call was proceeding, news broke on CBC that Canada was about to proclaim the IRGC a terrorist organization according to the Criminal Code. Rotrand told The Suburban he was “thrilled. We support the same position as many other Jewish and Iranian groups do.)

Baylis told the Zoom call that the work of United Against Hate is extremely important.

He added that while Canadians generally live in peace, we now see “ugly signs of discrimination, of hate bubbling up, and unless we stand up and speak to it, it’s like we accept it. The rise in antisemitism is unacceptable.”

Mazzone said United Against Hate is a “much needed tool to build dialogue and collaboration amongst our country’s diverse communities.”

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Anti-Hate coalition says McGill should BDS Hamas, Iran links

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By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

The United Against Hate Canada coalition wrote to McGill president Deep Saini in reaction to the university’s recent announcement that it was proposing to negotiate some of the demands of those involved with the more than two-month long anti-Israel encampment on the campus grounds.

The pro-Palestinian activists referred to McGill’s proposals as “laughable.” McGill stopped negotiating in mid-June.

Marvin Rotrand of United Against Hate Canada told The Suburban his group is questioning “McGill’s weak kneed response to anti-Israel protests and its supine attitude in the face of increasingly maximalist demands from a relative small, masked and totally unrepresentative group of protesters, many of whom are likely not McGill students.

“Rather than considering acceding to protesters’ shameful demands and offering amnesties, we are calling on the university to do the following — boycott, divest and sanction all nations, businesses and institutions that fund Hamas as well as cutting ties with all industries and academic institutions that have links with the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other terrorist entities,” Rotrand added. n

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Westbury speeding problem rolls on

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By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban

The speeding and reckless driving that’s become a familiar sight in the Westbury neighborhood shows no sign of slowing down, says Steven Ostroff.

Ever since construction of the development east of Décarie was announced, said the area resident, he and his neighbours have asked for traffic measures to mitigate what they knew would be a worsening situation in an already problematic area once new residents, cars and commercial activity arrived.

“We were told we would be getting traffic mitigation by the developer and by (former Snowdon) councillor Marvin Rotrand” Ostroff told CDN-NDG borough council last week. “Instead, we got nothing but a lot of young people with sports cars, AMG Hammers, and souped-up Mercedes” speeding through the neighbourhood.

Waving a photo of two wrecked cars at an intersection, Ostroff said “we have three of these incidents in 10 months, this one two weeks ago where airbags were deployed on both vehicles and both vehicles were totalled.”

Ostroff told The Suburban that the occupants of this most recent accident he is aware of were not seriously injured, “but one day someone will be,” and recalled bringing photos and details about a similar accident last year where children were removed from a vehicle by firefighters after the SUV they were riding in was broadsided by a speeding car crossing that same intersection.

He says residents have asked for a four-way stop at Vezina for years, “or some speed bumps or something,” noting there’s a 30 km/h speed limit, a school and park 100 metres away. “The bollards that were removed last year after only a few months would’ve prevented such accidents,” reminding council that he came with the same request a year ago. “I speak for my entire block: since this council hasn’t done anything except give us excuses, I’m sorry to say, I would like to know if you’re not able or willing to help us, who is?”

Borough Mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa said his account is “really disturbing” and asked borough director Stephane Plante to respond. Plante said last summer the borough installed larger stop signs and cleared branches obstructing existing ones, adding that more bollards are being installed in the middle of Vézina to narrow the road. “I’m not saying that it’s going to totally solve the situation but it’s going to help Vézina for sure.”

Ostroff said those measures won’t help Trans Island or Mountain Sights, where neighbours recently witnessed two cars racing up the block “because there are no speed bumps. Almost every block has one except ours.” He and his neighbours fear for each other’s safety, noting he has a nine-year-old child and elderly parents, who along with others, are fearful to walk in the neighbourhood.

Indeed, The Suburban visited the area on Thursday afternoon, and witnessed many cars rolling through the stop signs, and dozens more clearly surpassing Vezina’s 30 km/h limit, particularly heading east.

Katahwa said the problem is the Quebec law stipulating that stop signs cannot be too close to each other, “so our engineers will not sign those types of configurations…” She said the borough will be testing new types of speed bumps in the area that cover “the whole intersection of those streets, because mainly the most important problem of those is they are really, really large, so we need to find ways to slow the people who go on the street.”

Moroz told The Suburban that the bollards that were installed this week are a positive step. “Any enhancements in this regard are welcomed, provided they don’t unduly inconvenience local residents. It’s crucial that we strike a balance.” n

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SPVM responds to The Suburban on hate crimes after Rotrand letter

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By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Marvin Rotrand, formerly head of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, and now interim director of the new United Against Hate organization, is calling for clarity from the SPVM on hate crimes committed against the Montreal Jewish community.

Rotrand, whose new organization’s goal is to “promote dialogue and understanding within our diverse population to strengthen anti-hate efforts,” wrote to Montreal police chief Fady Dagher, pointing out that there has been a major increase in hate crime incidents in Canada in general, especially against Jewish communities since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

“Montreal was not spared from the wave of hatred targeting Jews,” Rotrand wrote. “Jewish schools were shot at and arson attempts were perpetrated against Jewish community buildings. Hateful gatherings openly incited violence against the Jewish community, Jewish students were attacked at Concordia University and calls for boycotts of businesses were launched simply because their owners are Jewish.”

Rotrand wrote that even after all of these incidents and the concerns expressed by the Jewish community, “there have been very few arrests.

“The lack of application of our laws gives the feeling that the authorities have not allocated the necessary resources to solve the major crimes we have witnessed in our city.”

Rotrand asked Dagher:

• “How many hate crimes and incidents have been recorded by the SPVM since Oct. 7, 2023? Of these, how many specifically targeted the Jewish community?”

• “With regard to incidents occurring since Oct. 7, 2023, when shots were fired at Jewish schools, and there were arson attempts against Jewish community buildings and acts of vandalism, are these incidents being investigated as probable hate crimes?”

• “What is the role of the SPVM’s Hate Crimes unit in these investigations? Does the unit lead the investigations? If not, what is its role?

• “On Nov. 24, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said that his department’s hate crimes unit had increased from a team from six people to 32. He said that since Oct. 7, the expanded unit made 22 arrests and laid 58 charges. What is the current number of police officers assigned to the hate crimes unit of the SPVM?

• Are there plans to increase the unit’s capacity to deal with the current epidemic of antisemitic incidents?

Rotrand wrote Dagher that the Montreal Jewish community “appreciates the statements you have made in recent months that anti-Semitism is unacceptable, and the increased visibility near Jewish institutions last October and November.

“However, the fact that there have been no arrests for these major crimes fuels a strong feeling that the SPVM must allocate many more resources so that investigations result in arrests and indictments of criminals.”

Contacted by The Suburban, the SPVM’s media representative said Dagher will respond to Rotrand in due course. They also provided the most recent statistics regarding hate crimes and incidents against members of the Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities from Oct. 7 to Feb. 24 — 42 hate crimes against Jewish individuals, 19 against Arab-Muslims; 32 hate crimes against Jewish properties, seven against Arab-Muslim properties; 56 antisemitic hate incidents, and 17 anti-Arab-Muslim incidents, for a total of 173 incidents — 130 against the Jewish community and 43 against the Arab-Muslim community.

The SPVM added that “there is no offence identified as a ‘hate crime’ in the Criminal Code.

“The hateful character is in fact a constitutive and aggravating factor of a given criminal act, a factor which must be nuanced depending on the context. For example, if a person is the victim of an assault motivated by hatred towards their religion, the suspect will be charged with assault and the hateful nature will be taken into consideration when determining the sentence, if convicted.”

The police added that although the SPVM’s hate crimes unit (MICH) processes them, hate incidents “do not lead to arrests or charges, because they are not criminal offences. The MICH takes care of this in order to prevent these incidents from potentially becoming hate crimes.” n

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Community leaders “disgusted” with Plante stance on antisemitism

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Joel Goldenberg

A group of leaders from various communities wrote an open letter this week demanding Mayor Valérie Plante do more to counter antisemitism in Montreal.

The letter was signed by the Honourable Marlene Jennings, Ramon Vincente of Filipino Family Services, former Snowdon councillor Marvin Rotrand; Juleen Barrington, president of the Antigua and Barbuda Association; Elie Israel, Commissioner Ward 1 on the English Montreal School Board; Norman Simon, President, Canadians for Coexistence; Norberto Mandin, Founder, CPRM Community Radio; Luzviminda Mazzone, President, the Federation of Filipino Canadian Associations of Quebec; Yvonne Sam, Chair of the Rights & Freedom Committee of the Black Community Resource Centre; Dr. David Zuroff, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at McGill University; Gemma Raeburn Baynes, President, Playmas Caribbean Cultural Association; Andrew Caddell of the Task Force on Linguistic Policy and Cynthia Waite, president of Barbados House.

“We are united in our condemnation of the horrific spate of antisemitism that Montreal has witnessed since the Oct. 7 attack by the Hamas terrorists on Israel,” the signatories wrote. “We were shocked when hateful anti-Israel demonstrators appeared at the Agglomeration Council meeting of December 21, 2023 to attack the Town of Hampstead for having adopted a bylaw fining those caught tearing down posters which call for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages held by terrorists.”

The letter-writers added that they were disgusted to learn “that these demonstrators were urged at the Dec. 18 Montreal Council meeting by Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante and Alexander Norris, her party leader, to come to the Agglomeration Council to directly question the Mayor of Hampstead,” Jeremy Levi.

“That however fits a pattern. Mayor Plante has vigorously defended Bochra Manaï, the city’s Anti-Racism Commissioner, who unapologetically attended anti-Israel rallies where antisemitic chants were heard and at which a local Imam made remarks that were condemned by both Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Legault as antisemitic and inciting hate against Jews.”

The signatories applauded the Jewish Community Council and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs for demanding Manaï’s firing.

“While no city in North America has witnessed as many and as violent incidents targeting Jews over the last months as Montreal has, Mayor Plante has yet to give a full-throated and clear denunciation of antisemitism and call for Hamas to give up its arms and release the hostages. It is time for action.”

The letter-writers are asking Montrealers to support their demands that Manaï be immediately fired, as well as “a clear statement from Mayor Plante denouncing Hamas as a terrorist group and a call for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages; and the adoption by city council of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.”

The signatories concluded that they are not mollified by Alexander Norris’s recent loss of his role as Projét Montréal majority leader, which followed his defence of 16 anti-Israel questions, nothing to do with agglomeration affairs, at the December and January agglomeration meetings as freedom of speech.

“Unlike many of Canada’s big city Mayors, Mayor Plante has not vigorously condemned antisemitism. It is time she did. Am Israel Chai.” n

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