Launching The Métropolitain
Quebec`s first bilingual newspaper since 1842
Speaking to staff and supporters at launch party for
"The Métropolitain" at Chez Alexandre et fils on Peel St.
Met mural in the offices of the paper
    
www.themetropolitain.ca
"The Last Angry Man"
For archives of all shows please go to one of the following links:
"BARRICADES"
The journal of the Institute
     
All Barricades issues and articles are now online at:
Special Interview
March 7, 2010
On Language
By BEN ZIMMER
The interplay of English optics and French optique on Canada’s political scene has long fascinated Beryl Wajsman, president of the Montreal-based Institute for Public Affairs and editor of The Suburban, Quebec’s largest English-language weekly. “The ‘optique,’ as it is called in very politically savvy Quebec, is everything,” he wrote in a 2007 column for Canada Free Press. Wajsman told me that optics and optique may have first commingled in Montreal around the time of the 1980 referendum on Quebec’s sovereignty. Independence for the province was voted down, with the “No” side bolstered by a stirring speech from Pierre Trudeau at Montreal’s Paul Sauvé Arena just days before the referendum. Trudeau’s bold intervention, Wajsman recalls, created some powerful optics.
For the complete text of this New York Times article please go to the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=585&z=12
Montréal Munipale 2009
With Mayor Tremblay and his wife on election night
A new agenda for Montreal
http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/648
En débat avec Gilles Proulx sur "Dumont 360"
http://vtele.ca/emissions/dumont360/archives/2009/09/498/1803.php
http://vtele.ca/emissions/dumont360/archives/2009/09/498/1804.php
Animateur pour "Sexy béton"
Théatre Porte-Parole
http://www.iapm.ca/media/sexybeton.wmv
Certificates of recognition from MPs
Marc Garneau and Marlene Jennings
 
Moderating Cotler Town Hall on
fighting anti-semitism
22 June 2009
National newspaper award for anti-racism editorial
28 May 2009
1st Anniversary issue of The Métropolitain
May Day 2009
To see the entire issue please click on the link below
http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/issue/44
Liberal Convention
Vancouver 2009
With Brigitte Garceau and her winning "Team Garceau" in her
successful bid for the vice-presidency of the Liberal Party of Canada
With l'Hon. Martin Cauchon, social activist Chris Karidigionnis and
former Ministerial Chief of Staff Anne-Marie Laurendeau
With citizens coalition demanding municipal change
8 April 2009
Press conference of citizens coalition. L-r, Le Mas des Oliviers'
owner Jacques Muller, Yvon Créton, Alexandre et fils owner
Alain Créton, BPW, and Sharon Freedman,co-organizer of the
25,000 signature anti-parking meter petition.
The conference denounced city policies and unveiled the
PetitionParcometre.com website.
27 March 2009
Full story at following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=577&z=22
With Mount Royal MP Irwin Cotler and Palestinian
Human Rights Monitoring Group founder and
director Bassam Eid
Causing a stir
27 February 2009
Alfred Apps says Wajsman has played a consultative role behind certain Liberal policies–for which Apps makes no apologies. “I think there’s an effort here on the part of the Tories to slam people with guilt by association. Beryl is one of the militants that is helping with the party, and his help is welcomed.” The presumptive next Liberal President–he is currently running unopposed–suggests the so-called “banned list” on which Wajsman appeared was less about meted out justice than it was a vestige of the old, bitter feud between Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien. “That list was created before the Gomery Commission had made any of its findings,” Apps said.
Montreal lawyer Julius Grey told Maclean's, “There is no evidence that Beryl is anything but honest. There is only so much a citizen can take of having mud thrown at him.”
~ Macleans, 27 February 2009
For full stories and reactions please go to following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=571&z=22
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Legacy Award Ceremony
16 January 2009
(l-r) Rev. Darryl G. Gray, BPW, Quebec Minister of Immigration
and CulturalCommunities Yolande James,
Mayor Gerald Tremblay
with Father John Walsh and City Councillor Mary Deros
with community activists led by
Gemma Raeburn-Baynes at right
To read Rev. Gray's comments please click on
the link below:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=569&z=22
On Gaza
with CTV's Tarah Schwartz
11 January 2009
“No nation can sit idly by while over 8000 rockets over
six years are hurled at it. Even Egypt closed its borders
to the Gazan regime. Many speak of Hamas as the
duly elected government of Gaza. Yet they conveniently
forget that Hamas only got elected because it killed or
drove out most of their Fatah opponents prior to the vote.
It was an election as Stalinist as any.”
Tarah Schwartz, Beryl Wajsman, Laith Marouf
Click on the following link to see the interview and debate
http://www.iapm.ca/media/cfcf1220090111.wmv
With Ignatieff
Ottawa
10 December 2008
"Cassandra's Lilacs"
Theatre St-Denis
2 October 2008
The Garceau Foundation and the Institute present
the "Gentle the Condition" benefit consert
Foundation founder and president Brigitte Garceau
Beryl Wajsman and Dennis Trudeau
Director Brian Morel, Brigitte Garceau,
Beryl Wajsman
For a full report on this vey special event please go to
the following link on this site:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=568&z=22
To view the videos of the concert in four parts
please click on the links below
Ranee Lee and her band performing
Ottawa "Human Dignity Rally"
7 August 2008
For full report on the rally and more pictures
go to the following link on this site:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=565&z=22
Speaking at Parliamentary press gallery prior ro rally
with (l-r) Mount Royal MP and former Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler, international human rights activist
Nazanin Afshin-Jam and former Secretary of State
for Asia/Pacific David Kilgour
BW speech at rally can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/media/human_dignity_rally.wmv
On Terrorists, Canada and Montreal
Solutions for Sudan
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Interview with Marci Ian on Canada AM discussing the Darfur genocide
“To save a single life…”
The Saul Itzhayek Affair
Vigil at Itzhayek home with community religious leaders and attorney Julius Grey
At inter-faith demonstration at Rev. Darryl Gray's church
In studio with Saul and Sylvia Itzhayek, former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler
and Cotler's executive assistant Howard Liebman
Please see "Itzhayek home!" at
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=554&z=22
"Answered Prayers"
Gentling the condition
BPW with (l-r) attorney and community activist Brigitte Garceau, labor leader Edward
Brandone, journalist P.A. Sévigny and the City of Montreal`s Réal Normandeau
at meeting to help the Maison du Partage d`Youville food bank and community kitchen
Please see story at following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=557&z=22
See full report on frontline social service groups at:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=558&z=22
Darfur: The Montreal Conference
BPW opening Conference. Left to right the Hon. David Kilgour,
Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Lewis W. MacKenzie, Southern Christian
Leadership Conference President Dr. Charles Steele, Jr.
For the complete text please go to the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=551&z=22
Letter of congratulations from the Hon. Jason Kenney
A Special Visitor
With former Secretary of State Kissinger at the
Conference de Montreal
At Israel Independance Day Rally
D'arcy McGee MNA Lawrence Bergman, Public Security Minister
Stockwell Day and BPW
Interviewing Stéphane Dion
The New Suburban
www.thesuburban.com
The Politics of Justice
For the complete text please go to the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=550&z=22
New Challenge
QUEBEC’S LARGEST ENGLISH WEEKLY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1963
www.thesuburban.com
See announcement in full at the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=549&z=22
Battling Hunger
Institute's Citizen-based Solutions
Elizabeth Nickson
Behind the scrim of the noisy war on terrorism, the United States launched, in October, the largest domestic-policy initiative of the past 40 years. With US$65-billion potentially at stake, in the quick flourish of an executive order, faith-based charity became the biggest social experiment in history. Lucky for us, the Americans do all the dirty work. Canadians must watch their progress with enormous interest. As the Canadian Association of Food Banks makes clear, food-bank use in Canada reaches 778,000 people a month and has doubled since 1989. That's more than the entire population of New Brunswick, points out a press release from the organization, which appears to document its statistics meticulously. The solution? "A comprehensive policy to realize food security for all citizens," says the group.
Anyone else smelling a Charter challenge? Noble as that would be, people are starving, and cannot wait for the "right to food" to be written into the Constitution. As Amy Sherman of the Hudson Institute says: "Kids are dying on the streets, single moms are making $6 an hour. All hands on deck."
So a few Montrealers have taken matters into their own very competent hands. A group of corporations and unions, at the instigation of The Institute for Public Affairs, under the stewardship of the magnetic Beryl P. Wajsman, have made a commitment, in perpetuity, to feed as many as half-a-million hungry Quebecers. This is Quebec civil society in action. Working together, without a penny from government to solve an immediate problem. According to Wajsman, Charles Seiden, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Food Banks "puts the number of Canadians suffering through, as he calls it, 'food insecurity,' at three to four million." Not a pretty number, especially when you consider the billions that Ottawa's bloated bureaucracy flushes down the toilet on vanity projects. Wajsman and his partners are planning to extend their Quebec initiative across Canada.
What Beryl Wajsman and his fellows are doing seems to be the Canadian version of a faith-based initiative. We must hope that he succeeds -- and that more citizens take back the fundamental responsibility for care of the poor from a government that has failed.
On Social Justice
The Issue No One Is Talking About
The most unpleasant sound to a politician is silence. Just ask Ed Broadbent. The former leader of the New Democratic Party left Parliament in 1989 to pursue a career as a teacher and lecturer. But as he traveled the country talking up his favorite theme—the lingering “national disgrace” of child poverty—Broadbent was shocked by the degree of apathy. “No one paid attention,” he says.
It was Broadbent who pricked the nation’s conscience 15 years ago by reminding citizens that thousands of Canadian youngsters went hungry every night. The message struck a chord with a population that had prided itself on being a global model of fairness. In 1989, a year after the N.D.P. won 43 seats in its best-ever federal showing, Broadbent leveraged the party’s clout in what was then a Tory-minority government to secure a resolution pledging to “eliminate” child poverty by 2000. At the time an estimated 1 in 6 Canadian children lived below the poverty line. Not only did the pledge go unfulfilled, but things have got worse. The number of people earning less than $11,000 a year grew during the 1990s by 34%. About a million Canadians under the age of 18 are in dire need, according to Campaign 2000, a national antipoverty group.
And so the problem festers. True, much of the economic news is good: employment is at an “all-time high,” Bank of Canada economist Stéfane Marion told the Globe and Mail last week, adding, “We believe the economy could actually return to its production potential before the end of 2005.” But too many Canadians aren’t keeping up. According to Beryl Wajsman, president of Montreal’s Institute for Public Affairs, a third of the nation’s work force has less than two weeks’ salary in the bank. Canada, Wajsman says, has only a “thin veneer of affluence.”
Why aren’t we talking about this? Here’s one reason. While political leaders are scrambling to outbid one another with plans for spending the nearly $3 billion surplus stored up over a tough decade of budget cuts, few seem willing to risk appealing to the better angels of our nature. In 1968 Pierre Trudeau won Canada’s heart by promising a “just society.” The fear mongering that has come to dominate the campaign—the Liberals began airing TV spots last week implying that Canadians were at risk from guns, pro-lifers and foreign wars—suggests that party tacticians believe today’s voters are interested only in getting through the night safely. Wajsman doesn’t buy it. “They’re not giving the electorate enough due,” he says. “Social justice is the bread-and-butter issue of our time, but it takes political courage to bring this up.”
Fighting Censorship
Thursday, May 17, 2007
BPW on the dangers of press councils
and self-censorship
To read the article in full please go to the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=547&z=22
The Tale of Two Nazanins
A Victory for Valor
Saturday, February 03, 2007
To the editors
Re: "A Credit to Her Crown"
The Post is to be commended for highlighting Vancouver's Nazanin Afshin- Jam's successful campaign to free Nazanin Fatehi from Tehran's infamous Evin prison. Ms. Fatehi languished in prison for two years after being sentenced to death for stabbing a man who was trying to rape her. Since there were not four male witnesses to the attempted rape, as required by Shariah law, Ms. Fatehi was convicted of premeditated murder. Her case drew some media attention, but it was not until Ms. Afshin-Jam -- 2003 Miss World Canada -- took the lead that the world really took notice. The decision by Iran's judiciary to reverse itself is almost unprecedented.
At a recent Public Affairs of Montreal conference on "Questions of Values: Ways of Response to the Islamist Challenge," Ms. Afshin-Jam used Ms. Fatehi's story as a case study, illustrating the embedded discrimination that exists under Shariah Law. In this age of universal deceit, when as George Orwell wrote, "merely speaking the truth is a revolutionary act," Ms. Afshin-Jam's actions are truly a passionate profile in courage. Many in Canada like to argue that we are a "reasonable" society, not a passionate one. Yet the two are not mutually exclusive.
Passion is not the opponent of reason. Fear is. And lives fuelled by fear are not very much at all.
Beryl P. Wajsman, president, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal
Nazanin Afshin-Jam (l.) at Amnesty International's World Day Against
the Death Penalty in Berlin demonstrating for Nazanin Fatehi
As many of you know we have focused much attention on air, and given moral and material support from the Institute, to the singularly heroic work of human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam in her efforts to free 18-year old Nazanin Fatehi from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison where she has languished for two years after being sentenced to death for stabbing the man who was trying to rape her. Fatehi’s case had drawn some world attention, but it was not until Afshin-Jam, who had already engaged in humanitarian work from Africa to Asia, put her life on hold to lead an international effort to save the life of this young girl facing the hangman’s noose because of Sharia law that the world sat up and took notice.
For more on this story please go to the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=508&z=22
Nazanin Afshin-Jam speaking at a recent Institute conference
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=499&z=22
www.theconservativevoice.com
NEWS & COMMENTARY
by Beryl Wajsman
A Canadian Profile in Courage
February 03, 2007
“Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from thousands of different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
~ Robert F. Kennedy
Many make the mistake that because we, as a society, strive for reason, that we must therefore abdicate passion. Yet passion is not the opponent of reason. Fear is. And a life fuelled by fear is not very much at all. Nazanin Afshin-Jam did not forget passion and did not submit to fear. In her single-minded pursuit of justice for Nazanin Fatehi she has served as an example for all Canadians making us realize that we are at our best when we transcend our narrow narcissisms and become involved in mankind’s transcendent yearnings for redemptive change.
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=508&z=22
Helping Citizens Fight Unjust Taxation
Merchants' revolt brews
Upset over parking, taxes.
Grassroots group aims to 'parkavenue' the mayor
|
|
|
DAVID JOHNSTON |
|
The Gazette Monday,
March 05, 2007
The parking issue has begun to assume a much higher media profile in recent weeks. On French-language radio, populist firebrand Gilles Proulx has been hammering away at the Tremblay administration; on English radio, Beryl Wajsman has been carrying the torch on AM 940 Montreal.
"Basically, this is a group of disgruntled citizens who have a good reason to be disgruntled," said Wajsman, whose show, The Last Angry Man, runs from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. |
Monday, March 12th, 2007
MONTREAL TODAY
 
Joe Cannon and Beryl Wajsman on
The Meter War and Montreal’s brewing Tax Revolt
ASSEZ C'EST ASSEZ!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Sign the on-line petition at
Attacking Prejudice
Religious profiling, Quebec-style
Thursday, November 2, 2006
To read the text of this article please go to the following link on this site:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=500&z=22
Canada Free Press
Canadian troops in Afghanistan, anti-Semitism
A funny thing happened on
the way from the rally
By Beryl Wajsman, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal
Sunday, November 5, 2006
PART OF SECOND RALLY HELD BY THE STUDENT
“MONTREAL ALLIANCE” ON NOV.3
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT GALBRAITH
WWW.ROBERTGALBRAITH.COM
“Anti-Semitism is the swollen envy of pygmy minds.”
~Mark Twain
“The reporter’s words were more searing than anything nature threw at us that morning. They demonstrated an inbred jealousy of the capacity for individual courage and consequence. A jealousy driven by a self-doubt arising from a lack of self-belief. A lack of self-belief too often in evidence today that compels so many to compromise and question anyone of purpose and principle who does not manifest fidelity to age-old inbred prejudices that act as armour against the discipline of intellectual rigour. A discipline that, if exercised, would mirror the stark reality of myriad failures. It is to be hoped that we can marshal a resolve to comprehend, in Robert Kennedy’s words, that “…courage is the cardinal human virtue…” And those prejudices – directed at Jews or any other ethnicity, religion or creed – are nothing but the swollen envy of pygmy minds that, if left unchecked, will in the final analysis lead to our own undoing.”
Twelve Days That Should Rend Our Souls Asunder
January 19, 2007 | New York
To read the full text of this article please go to the following link:
INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS OF MONTREAL
INSTITUT DES AFFAIRES PUBLIQUES DE MONTRÉAL
10th Institute Policy Conference
“Questions of Values: Ways of Response to the Islamist Challenge “
October 25th, 2006
Delta Centre-Ville Hotel
THE FULL VIDEO OF THE CONFERENCE AND ALL
SPEAKERS’ PRESENTATIONS AS WELL AS PRESS COVERAGE,
RADIO INTERVIEWS and pictures ARE NOW
AVAILABLE at THE FOLLOWING LINK ON THis webSITE:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=499&z=22
From l-r: BPW, Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Brigitte Gabriel,
Dr. Wafa Sultan, Nonie Darwish, Germain Belzile
CHQR'S "THE WORLD TOnight"
with Rob Breakenridge
The urgency of individual resolve
BPW’s reflections from the Conference
Quebec and A Question of Values
Montreal's Rally for "Peace"
Canada Free Press
Peace for Lebanon and Palestine, Media, Israel
Quebec and
A Question of Values
The Montreal Rally for "Peace"
by Beryl Wajsman, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal
Nathalie Elgrably, HEC-Montreal
August 9, 2006
“They made a desert and called it peace”
~ Tacitus, “Commentaries on the War in Gaul”
 
Wajsman Elgrably
Sunday, Montreal witnessed a demonstration for peace for Lebanon and Palestine.
As usual, Israel was not mentioned. We guess it is not entitled to peace.
As usual the media focused on Lebanese flags, not the sea of Hezbollah flags. We guess Israel, and all freedom-loving Canadians, are supposed to ignore these fifth-columnists within our midst whose mouths dripped all afternoon with words of nullification and interposition against the free world.
PQ Leader André Boisclair. At left is FTQ President Henri Massé.
They are standing in front of a defiled Jewish prayer shawl.
Boisclair said: "The Quebec I saw marching in the street is
the Quebec which inspires me."
Photo and caption courtesy of David Ouellette (Judéoscope.ca)
The Suburban
For the full text of the above please go to the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=494&z=22
The Mid-East Crisis
Lebanese Officials Complicit with Hezbollah
Op-Ed by BPW
For a full view of this text please go to the following link on this site:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=493&z=8
With the Foreign Minister
The Hon. Peter G. MacKay and BPW
From the Klan to Tehran
18 December 2006
The "Manama Dialogue"
8-10 December 2006
Bahrain
Baker, Carter, Duke
& the New Cliveden Mindset
By Beryl Wajsman
Well, I guess we can all rest easier now. Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, told the International Institute of Strategic Studies conference taking place in Bahrain that Iran is ready to co-operate with the United States……in withdrawing from Iraq. He coupled that statement by repeating the threat of Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, that if America refuses this most "generous" offer of co-operation, Iran will stir the Persian Gulf states to eject U.S. bases from their countries. What sublimely perfect timing coming on the heels of James Baker's Iraq Study Group recommendation that America should talk to Iran. Now we know what Iran's agenda will be. American submission and capitulation. And coming the same week as the Tehran Holocaust denial conference, we have a clear signal that while Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denies the first Holocaust ever happened while preparing a second one against Israel, he is certainly ready to copy the playbook of Herr Hitler in expansionist territorial aggression by assaulting his neighbours just like the screeching corporal did to Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Copyright ©2005-2006 The International Institute For Strategic Studies
Iranian Racism
BY JAMES TARANTO
Friday, May 19, 2006
"We Don't Need No Stinking Badges"
"Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims," reports Canada's National Post. "This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis.”. . .
Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth. Political commentator and 940 Montreal host Beryl Wajsman says the report is true, and that the law was passed two years ago (but not released from the parliament). If it is true, it goes to prove Karl Marx's observation that history repeats, first as tragedy, then as Farsi.
Wallenberg Memorial Lecture
Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Day
Honoring His Spirit of Humanity
Living testimonies at McGill University and the Swedish Embassy in Ottawa commemorated Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Day in Canada by hosting a symposium devoted to his legacy of humanity and tolerance. Discussions addressed how values of democracy, human rights and mutual acceptance can combat racism, xenophobia and anti- Semitism. The speakers included:
H.E. Lennart Alvin, Ambassador of Sweden to Canada; Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, Primate of the Anglican Church in Canada; Me. Julius Grey, Civil Liberties advocate, Montreal; Dr. Paul A. Levine, Director of the Uppsala Program for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden; Beryl P. Wajsman, President of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal; Dr. Heléne Loow, Director of Living History Forum,Sweden; Jan Ahlberg, Director of Crime Studies Division, National Council for Crime Prevention, Sweden
   
(l.-r) Alvin, Hutchison,Grey and Wajsman
This important event took place on Jan. 17, 2005 at McGill University. It was the 60th Anniversary of the date of Wallenberg's disappearance.
To view a copy of "Wallenberg:Daring To Care--The Imperative of Redemptive Rage"
please go to the following link on this siite:
§
CBC "Canada Now" Interview
Interview at CBC following the conference. From left to right are Dr.Paul Levine, Director of the Centre for Genocide and Holocaust Studies at Uppsala University in Stockholm; Canada Now Host Dennis Trudeau and BPW.
To see the full interview please go the the following link:
§
Communities of Conscience
The Budapest Wallenberg Memorial Project
Raoul Wallenberg’s legacy is unparalleled. January 17th, 2007 marked the 62nd anniversary of his disappearance. The Institute has lent its support to the efforts of Peter Lancz to replicate the Montreal memorial to Wallenberg in Budapest, the very city where Wallenberg stood up to terror and left a transcendental legacy of redemptive character saving some 100,000 people from the murderous hands of Nazi butchers. We are humbled and gratified that our work has earned the support of Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, who was instrumental in making the Wallenberg Memorial in Montreal a reality in front of Christ Church Cathedral. It should spark your conviction to contribute to this project. I urge you to e-mail us or call the Institute office at 514.875.4884 x.222. ~ BPW
November 17, 2006
The Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal has agreed to help Peter Lancz raise the $35,000 necessary for the production of the new statue and the transportation and ancillary costs of setting it up in Budapest. We believe this is an important initiative worthy of all Canadians’ support. For Wallenberg’s message was one of celebrating, and protecting, our common universalities and the individual rights of man. There could be no nobler signature for our society in this Northern Dominion. I would strongly urge you to lend your support to this important effort of Peter Lancz and the Institute.
Yours faithfully
The Most Reverend Andrew S. Hutchison
Archbishop and Primate
To view the complete text of Archbishop Hutchison's letter and the project details
please go to the following link on this website:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=525&z=22
UNICEF
Le 50e anniversaire UNICEF Québec
par Rodger Brulotte
L’année 2005 marquera les 50 années d’UNICEF Québec au service des enfants les plus marginalisés et les plus vulnérables du monde. La familiale bénéfice sous le thème « Partageons la magie du savoir » était placée sous la présidence d’honneur de Sénateur Céline Hervieux-Payette, Nancy Orr (Groupe Dynamis), Beryl P. Wajsman, président de l’Institut des Affaires Publiques de Montréal,Michel Beaudet (Les productions mag2 Inc.), Martin Bellefeuille,CFA (Casgrain & Cie Ltée), Denis Blain (les Produits d’Acier Hason), Michael Holy (Unilight Ltée) et Serge Principe (Associé Harel Drouin-PFK).
Wanda Bédard, président du comité organisateur, a dit que le Bal du 50e anniversaire d’UNICEF au Québec a connu un immense succès grâce a`l’appui des dirigeants de la communauté des gens d’affaires, qui ont accepté de présider l’événement. Dans le photo on retrouve dans l’ordre habituel des coprésidents du bal : Denis Blain, Serge Principe, Martin Bellefeuille, Michel Beaudet, Beryl P. Wajsman et Michael Holy.
UNICEF Québec`s 50th Anniversary
by
Mike Cohen
Beryl Wajsman, head of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal and a frequent Suburban contributor, has been named one of the honourary presidents for the 50th anniversary UNICEF dinner to be held April 16 at the Sheraton Laval. Among the other honourary presidents are Sen. Céline Hervieux-Payette and Nancy Orr.
Commentary from the UNICEF Program
Fighting Quebec's Petty Narcissms
|
Quebec's narcissistic boycotters |
|
BERYL P. WAJSMAN
Jerusalem Post
Jerusalem Jan 18, 2006
The writer is president of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal |
Some of the great "progressive" forces of Quebec have decided to boycott Israeli products and companies because of Israel's "apartheid politics." What unadulterated hypocrisy. By their deeds they have demonstrated, to their shame, the true face of that part of Quebec society that, while boldly declaring its own "distinctiveness," is really haunted by a self-doubt driven by a jealousy of others' self-belief.
To read the full text of this op-ed please go to the following link on this site:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=464&z=22
CSN leader distances union from
Israel boycott
By JANICE ARNOLD
Staff Reporter
February 8, 2006
The Montreal president of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) is distancing the labour group from a boycott of Israeli products launched in December by some 20 Quebec organizations. Arthur Sandborn told The CJN that both the Montreal and provincial CSN executives declined to endorse the boycott after being approached to join it.
The CSN, however, remains a permanent member of the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine, the body that is co-ordinating the boycott. In addition, one of the CSN’s affiliates, the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants, the provincial union of CEGEP teachers, is among the 20 organizations promoting the boycott.
The CSN leader reacted to the boycott call only after an article by Beryl Wajsman, president of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, that was critical of the action and the radicalism of Quebec unions appeared in the Jerusalem Post.
To Rouse the World From Fear
www.theconservativevoice.com
NEWS & COMMENTARY
by Beryl Wajsman
The Legacy of JFK
November 26, 2006
“I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable -
and so was Bastogne, and so, in fact,
was Stalingrad. Any danger spot is tenable if men -
brave men - will make it so.”
~President John F. Kennedy
Wednesday, November 22nd, was the forty-third anniversary of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. That tragedy haunts us still. In many ways and at all times. The writer Mary McGrory said on that day that we shall never smile again. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said no, we may smile again, but we’ll never be young again. For most it was the day hope died.
But hope, like courage, rests not on the shoulders of any one man but lives on from the words of that man in the hearts of all. All we need is the resolve to remember, and to carry on.
It is in that remembrance that we answer the question of many scholars as to what JFK’s legacy really was. His Presidency too short to see the fulfillment of many of his boldest initiatives, how is it that he captures our imaginations still? The answer rests in his words as much as his deeds. For those words, those ideas, still make us see possibilities in ourselves that we thought unimaginable.
For the full text of this article and the text of the "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" address
please go to the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=504&z=8
Therefore Choose Courage
Lest We Forget Canadians of Conscience
For the full text of this article please go to the following link:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=501&z=22
For the Devastated of Darfur
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Montreal Leaders Seek Help For Sudan
Solidarity with refugees of Darfur.
Religious communities urge government to use diplomatic force to help stop crisis |
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KAZI STASTNA |
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The Gazette; AP contributed to this report
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Father John Walsh of St. John Brebeuf is flanked by Rabbi Reuben Poupko (left) of Beth Israel-Beth Aaron and Reverend Darryl Gray of Union United Church during an ecumenical prayer service at The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre yesterday in support of Darfur in Sudan. Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Tifereth Beth David Synagogue is at left and Beryl Wajsman of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal is at right. Behind the pillar is Rev. Ken Godon of Snowdon Baptist.
The leaders of some of Montreal's religious communities called on the Canadian government to abandon back channels and use stronger diplomatic force to stop the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan yesterday. Gathered around an urn containing the ashes of victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the heads of Jewish, Roman Catholic, Baptist and United Church congregations in the city led a brief ecumenical prayer service in the memorial room of The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. The service was intended as a sign of solidarity with black Africans in Sudan's western province of Darfur, who have endured a 15-month campaign of murder, looting and rape at the hands of the Janjaweed, a pro-government Arab militia.
"I found it tragic that Canada recently underwent a national election campaign and with all of the significant issues discussed, the No. 1 tragedy of the day, the leading humanitarian crisis of the moment, was completely ignored," Rabbi Reuben Poupko said. The head of the Beth Israel congregation in Cote St. Luc organized the service with the help of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal.
Since the conflict between non-Arab rebel groups and the pro-government militia began, roughly one million civilians have been displaced, at least 10,000 people have been killed and 150,000 have fled to Chad, which neighbors the Darfur region. Canada should use its moral authority at the United Nations to force the Arab government in Khartoum to free up the humanitarian aid it has been accused of blocking, said the public affairs institute's president, Beryl Wajsman.
BPW being interviewed by CJAD's Caroline Phaneuf
Please see "With One Voice: For the Devastated of Darfur" at the following link on this site:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=324&z=22
Seniors Rights Conference
State And Family Abuse Issues Dominate Conference
By Janice Arnold
Staff Reporter
l-r: Katherine Frechette, Office of the Public Curator of Quebec; Me.Jean-Claude Paquet, Counsel to the Protecteur du Citoyen du Québec; Me.Julie Delaney, Menard-Martin Avocats; Me. Jean-Pierre Menard, Senior Partner, Menard-Martin, Quebec's leading victims rights attorney; Beryl Wajsman, President of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal (Conference co-sponsor and moderator); Sharon Freedman, Jewish General Hospital Social Worker and Conference organizer ; Constance Leduc, Commission des droits de la personne du Québec; Dr.Henry Olders, Psycho-Getric specialist JGH.
A doctor and a social worker from the Jewish General Hospital (JGH) recently raised serious concerns about the number of elderly people who are being financially exploited.
Dr. Henry Olders, a geriatric psychiatrist, and Sharon Freedman, a social worker for 28 years, also suggested at a public conference on the issue that the Office of the Public Curator (PC) is not as vigilant and accountable as it should be in the management of the affairs of people deemed incompetent. Moreover, there is no effective oversight of the PC’s operations, and legal recourse is complicated and takes too long, they said.
Freedman and Beryl Wajsman, president of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, co-chaired the conference, which was co-sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women (Montreal), and the Institute,at the Gelber Conference Centre.
The forum provided a rare open dialogue between health-care professionals and the community, and a representative of the PC, Katherine Frechette. Also on the panel were Constance Leduc of the Quebec Human Rights Commission, Jean Claude Paquet of the Quebec Ombudsman’s Office, and lawyer Jean Pierre Menard, who specializes in elder abuse cases.
For a fuller understanding of the problems seniors face exercising and protecting their rights please read
"The Neglect of the Elderly: A Visible Minority Besieged" at the following link on this site:
http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=307&z=22
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From: "Carniol, Naomi (Mo |
