AWARD TO JASON KENNEY

Faculty slam U of Haifa plan to award honourary degree to Jason Kenney

BY TOBI COHEN

FROM CANADA.COM

http://www.canada.com/Faculty+slam+Haifa+plan+award+honourary+degree+Jason+Kenney/7490283/story.html

 

OTTAWA - It seems not everybody is happy about the University of Haifa's plan to confer a honourary degree upon Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in Toronto this weekend.

About 23 members of the Israeli university's faculty have signed a "letter of protest" against it.
They argue his government's policies toward the Roma in Canada make him unworthy of the honour.
Kenney has repeatedly argued that Hungarian Roma are showing up in Canada in droves, claiming asylum, obtaining health care and welfare benefits and then abandoning or withdrawing their claims. Many others who complete the process, he's argued, find their applications rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

He often mentions the community when he talks about why his department is cutting certain health care benefits for refugee claimants and designating certain countries as "safe" non-typical producers of refugees which will allow the government to deport failed claimants quicker.

Richard Schuster, professor emeritus of psychology, compares Canada's policies towards the Roma to Israeli policies towards so-called "illegal African refugees" from places like Southern Sudan and Eritrea.

"In the case of the Africans, they are being deported to an uncertain future in an unstable area racked by wars and poverty. Their secure future is by no means certain," he writes.

"In the case of the Roma (Gypsy) refugee in Canada, the target of Kenney's actions, deportation is back to Hungary where their future is just as clearly at risk."

He argues the rise of neo-Nazism in Hungary is putting Roma as well as Hungarian Jews at risk and that the country's "right-wing government" is doing little to curb the violence and discrimination.
"We recognize that university academics cannot hope to alter Canadian politics or policies, even though Kenney has tried to alter our politics and policies by unequivocally backing our government and its emphasis on security over co-existence - in Israel, at the UN and wherever else they are given a platform," he said.

"As feeble as our protest may seem, the signatories will be able to declare in unison their opposition and condemnation as members of the university's academic staff to both the policies in Canada and to the stain on the university that inevitably will arise from conferring this money-stained award."

A number of Canadian rabbis and prominent members of the Jewish community have also spoken out against the government's policies towards Hungarian Roma in recent months.

Kenney will receive his honorary doctorate of philosophy at a gala fundraising dinner put on by the Canadian Friends of the University of Haifa on Sunday at the Royal York Hotel.

"Jason has continued to demonstrate a leadership role in combating all forms of antisemitism and in standing up for Israel on the world stage," says a write-up about the event on the university's website.
"As Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney remains committed to standing up for the Jewish state against those who seek to delegitimize and deny its existence."

Liberal MPs Bob Rae and Irwin Cotler have received the same honorary degree in the past. So too has Magna International founder Frank Stronach and chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall.

Kenney's office wouldn't comment on the protest letter.
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This is a travesty.
Morgan