Like other community organizations<\/a>, B\u2019nai Brith Canada came out strongly against the move and has now penned a letter directly to Carney<\/a> signed by a host of prominent Canadians from across the political and community spectrum, ranging from broadcasters and rabbis to former cabinet ministers and business leaders.<\/p>\n Calling it a dangerous and highly premature foreign policy blunder, B\u2019nai Brith says the policy could embarrass Canada, compound the Middle East crisis \u201cand further push Israelis and Palestinians away from establishing a two-state solution,\u201d wrote chief operating officer Judy Foldes.<\/p>\n The letter highlights what B\u2019nai Brith sees as the dangerous folly of pinning all hopes on Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority (PA), taking particular note of the lack of transparency or accountability for the decision. \u201cThough the hasty recognition of a Palestinian state may appease some on Canada\u2019s political fringes,\u201d says Foldes, \u201cit is beyond the pale that such a serious reversal in Canadian foreign policy has been made at a time when Parliament is not in session.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the type of decision where I believe a lot of Canadians would have felt more comfortable had they had the opportunity to have the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs answer questions on the floor as to why they chose to make this decision at this time,\u201d B\u2019nai Brith\u2019s director of research and advocacy Richard Robertson said in an interview with The CJN.<\/p>\n The B\u2019nai Brith letter says that Abbas\u2019 record on Holocaust denial, funding terrorism, incitement in education and suppression of dissidents makes the PA\u2019s assertions meaningless, \u201cyet you are taking them at face value. Entrusting the PA with self-actuating on a democratic transformation is a fraught endeavour. That the decision is based on the word of PA President Mahmoud Abbas underscores the absurdity of this course of action.\u201d<\/p>\n Small Montreal suburb speaks out<\/p>\n Now, a small Montreal suburb has also made its voice heard<\/a>.<\/p>\n As soon as he heard about Canada\u2019s sharp policy shift, C\u00f4te Saint-Luc city councillor Lior Azerad felt compelled to act. \u201cIt bothered me and while I realize there\u2019s not much I can do as a city councillor, I know council speaks through resolutions so I got to work on it. We had to make a statement of where we stand.\u201d<\/p>\n The councillor in the small but heavily Jewish Montreal island suburb began to pen a resolution that was ultimately adopted on Aug.11 by the nine-member council representing some 38,000 people, with Jews comprising more than half of the population<\/a>.<\/p>\n The effort could have been fraught with roadblocks given that C\u00f4te Saint-Luc is a decidedly Liberal town, with a mayor, Mitchell Brownstein, who serves as the president of the Mount Royal Liberal riding association, and who succeeded former mayor Anthony Housefather, who is now the four-term member of parliament.<\/p>\n For his part, Brownstein says despite his local leadership role in the Liberal party, \u201cI\u2019m the mayor of C\u00f4te Saint-Luc and I have to represent all people, no matter what their party is. I represent Conservatives, Liberals, everybody, and I represent them all as a mayor that always stands up for minority rights\u2026. that\u2019s who I am and I have to be that person, the mayor of all people no matter what their political beliefs are.\u201d<\/p>\n The motion, which he jokes \u201cwent through 16,000 changes, is a very good one and focuses on antisemitism more than anything else.\u201d He agrees with Azerad that what\u2019s most important is the message that a declaration about statehood was premature and causing more unrest. \u201cI could be wrong, but recognition of the Palestinian state will go ahead without all the conditions, we\u2019re in the position now where there\u2019s no one to negotiate with and hostages have not been released. It\u2019s not contingent on releasing hostages. It\u2019s not contingent on anything.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re empowering hate by considering at this point in time, negotiating with a terrorist organization, whether or not they said that\u2019s the only person that\u2019s there now,\u201d says Brownstein.<\/p>\n The motion originally leaned on legalities of statehood recognition, Azerad told The CJN, but now is focused more heavily on security and how the move is affecting Jews in Canada. \u201cThere was a lot of work to come to a text we could all agree upon, and it was down to the wire. But what was very important for me was not so much just the words, but that we send a clear message to the federal government and for people to hear where we stand as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n Recognition without a negotiated agreement between Israel and the PA not only departs from Canada\u2019s longstanding policy of supporting a two-state solution through direct negotiations (as per United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338) says the council, \u201cbut it legitimizes and emboldens the terrorists abroad and all those who support them here at home.\u201d<\/p>\n The motion notes Montreal Jews have experienced ever-rising incidents of hate and violent antisemitism in their daily lives at work, at universities and in their local parks and neighbourhoods during the past two years, particularly in the Montreal suburbs and boroughs of C\u00f4te Saint-Luc, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, C\u00f4te des Neiges\u2014Notre Dame de Gr\u00e2ce, Saint-Laurent, Outremont, Westmount, and Ville-Marie.<\/p>\n The position of C\u00f4te Saint-Luc council is clear: \u201cIn rushing to endorse Palestinian statehood without any agreement between the parties, Prime Minister Carney is rewarding violence and legitimizing extremism in the Middle East and right here in Montreal as well as in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n Cloaking hate in the language of diplomacy<\/p>\n Such a robust denunciation by C\u00f4te Saint-Luc of anything regarding the Liberal government surprised many in Montreal\u2019s west end. The mayor of neighbouring Hampstead, Jeremy Levi, known over the last two years for his outspoken support of Israel and criticism of the Liberal government on its foreign policy, applauded C\u00f4te-Saint-Luc<\/a> \u201cfor taking a stand against the federal Liberal government\u2019s disgraceful intent to recognize \u2018Palestine\u2019 as a state\u2026More municipal governments must find the backbone to speak out, as Hampstead will when we adopt our own resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n Hampstead applauds C\u00f4te-Saint-Luc for taking a stand against the Federal Liberal government\u2019s disgraceful intent to recognize \u201cPalestine\u201d as a state. This is not diplomacy \u2014 it is appeasement of those who glorify terror and reject peace. Carney\u2019s government is on the wrong side\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014 Mayor Jeremy Levi (@jerlevi) August 13, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n Levi told The CJN that C\u00f4te Saint-Luc\u2019s resolution was \u201ca pleasant surprise\u201d and that it simply reflects what the population is thinking. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if their mayor runs a Liberal association, or who the MP is. This transcends all that. It\u2019s what the people want. Municipal council is the most closely affiliated with the population and this clearly shows what the people of C\u00f4te Saint-Luc are feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n In Hampstead, which has an even greater concentration of Jewish residents, council plans to adopt its own resolution when it returns Aug. 25, for the first time since early July. It will be shorter and less technical than the C\u00f4te Saint-Luc resolution, Levi told The CJN. \u201cBut it will be direct and the message will be clear.\u201d<\/p>\n Azerad says he started out with \u201ca very hard position\u201d about what he calls \u201can amoral decision\u2026but it\u2019s much easier for me because I have different views. Obviously, we know that we have people on the council who have even stumped for Anthony Housefather and the Liberal party. It\u2019s not simple or easy for them, but I was very glad that everybody did come around and coalesced around the wording.\u201d<\/p>\n Azerad also takes issue with Housefather\u2019s response following the Carney announcement<\/a>.\u201c He didn\u2019t address the problem, so for me, that\u2019s a non-statement for the simple reason that he (Carney) is accepting a Palestinian state before the conditions are even met. They\u2019re trying to speak out of both sides of their mouths?\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if the resolution is a difficult pill to swallow for a loyal Liberal MP, Housefather said C\u00f4te Saint-Luc can adopt any resolution it sees fit.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was mayor, we adopted resolutions that sometimes respectfully opposed federal or provincial actions and the current council has every ability to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n He told The CJN his statement on recognition was clear, \u201cthat I believe it should only occur after the hostages had been returned and that Hamas had laid down its arms and was not in power in any part of the territory amongst other issues, and this is the position I continue to advocate for.\u201d He added that he has scheduled a meeting with Canadian Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree and the city council to discuss the federal government\u2019s plans to address antisemitism.<\/p>\n Local resident and attorney Michael Hollander, who has been active in several legal files involving antisemitism on campuses and around Montreal on behalf of students and institutions, has been a strident critic of Housefather, the city council, and Brownstein, who he questioned at a December council meeting about what he called a milquetoast reply to antisemitism and led to one of the most raucous council meetings<\/a> in recent memory.<\/p>\n The day before the meeting where the resolution was introduced, Hollander again challenged council in a post on X<\/a> asking if the council would condemn Carney\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n Will the mayor of @CoteSaintLuc<\/a> @MitchellBrowns2<\/a> who is also the president of the Liberal Party Riding Association of Mount Royal and supported Mark Carney to the complete detriment of whom he claims to be his people condemn the Liberal Government\u2019s announcement of the\u2026<\/p>\n
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