Politics

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather says he is “looking forward to making a real difference” as the government’s new special adviser on Jewish community relations and antisemitism.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced his appointment to the role on Friday, saying Housefather will advise the prime minister and cabinet and work with the Jewish community.

Housefather, who is Jewish, has been outspoken about the rise in antisemitism in Canada since the current conflict between Israel and Hamas began in October.

The appointment comes four months Housefather considered leaving the Liberal caucus after an NDP motion on the Israel-Gaza war left him feeling intense anger and isolated within his party.

Following that period of reflection he said he would stay as a Liberal and that Trudeau had asked him to work with the government to address the “massive” issue of antisemitism in Canada right now.

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Montreal MP Anthony Housefather mulling his future with Liberal Party

Housefather would go on to help start a parliamentary committee study into antisemitism on university campuses in May.

Housefather himself has been the target of antisemitic hatred including earlier this week when posters were taped to signposts in Montreal calling him a Nazi, equating Zionism to terrorism and telling him to “get out of Canada.”

Housefather welcomed his appointment which will include working with Deborah Lyons, the federal government’s special envoy on combating antisemitism.

“Jewish Canadians need to feel safe in our communities, on campus and in Canadian life,” he said in a statement.

The original NDP motion included a demand that Canada officially recognize the state of Palestine.

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Reaction to Liberals passing Israel-Hamas Motion

Housefather called that wording one-sided, and the motion caused significant division among members of Parliament including within the Liberal caucus.

The motion that eventually passed was revised to be very close to existing Canadian foreign policy, including a recognition that Palestinian statehood would be part of a two-state solution within the Middle East peace process.

Wording was added to call for Hamas to lay down its weapons and clearly identify the militant group as a recognized terrorist organization. The motion also included a call for Canada to stop approving transfers of arms exports to Israel.

At the time, Housefather acknowledged the last-minute changes improved the motion but said he could not support it in part because the changes came so late in the process they were not fully debated.

&copy 2024 The Canadian Press

Addressing the European Council today in Brussels, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola highlighted the following topics:

Ukraine

“The European Parliament welcomes the new security cooperation pact between Ukraine and the European Union.

The presence of President Zelenskyy here to mark the occasion is of important symbolical value and bears proof to our mutual commitment to our common security and shared destiny.”

Enlargement

“The step taken to begin formal EU membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova this month is significant and important. The European Parliament has been a strong advocate for the launch of EU accession negotiations.

Getting our Union ready for enlargement must remain a top priority in our next institutional cycle.”

Delivering on messages from the elections

“We have now a much clearer view of what people expect us to deliver on over the next five years. The challenge is now to turn these electoral messages into a political programme for the European Union. One that is serious, deliverable and implementable.”

Security and defence

“People have called for the robust defence of our values and for security to remain a top priority. Our support for Ukraine must continue.

It also means doing more to increase Europe’s ability to respond to any type of crisis and strategic autonomy. This requires a pressing need to develop a real common security and defence policy.

We have already worked together to ramp-up our capabilities, decrease duplications and reduce the fragmentation of the defence industries. Establishing a strong defence industrial base is the next step.”

Competitiveness and the Single Market

“European competitiveness is critical from an economic and a political perspective – we need to reinforce Europe’s place on the global stage.“

“We need to re-double our efforts for open, balanced, fair trade that is based on international rules, and broaden our network of trade agreements with partners by concluding and ratifying the ones we have in the pipeline.”

“Strengthening competitiveness will also require deepening the Single Market. Only by increasing productivity, speeding-up investments in own industrial capabilities, can we reduce strategic dependencies while simultaneously supporting and sustaining economic growth. The Single Market is our greatest economic driver.”

Financing growth

“If we are to grow our economies and pay back our debts, we have to get serious about finding innovative ways to fuel both public and private investment.”

“The increase of the ceilings in a mid-term revision of the EU’s current long-term budget was an important step in the right direction. As we prepare for the next MFF, we need to ensure a budget that is fit-for-purpose.”

“We need to complete our Banking and Capital Markets Unions, if we are serious about mobilising private capital to invest in our priorities, and to incentivise our companies to stay in Europe. This is how we sustain economic growth and create new quality jobs and futures with dignity.”

Leaving nobody behind

“When it comes to making progress on the green and digital transitions, no one should be left behind. Implementation here is key. That must be our focus now.”

“Whilst we are extremely proud of our world leading targets, burdens, bureaucracy and red-tape risk holding back progress. Each regulation may well be justified, but when taken together we need to be careful to ensure that this does not become too much. Our proposals must work for families. For industry. For farmers.”

“That is how we can bring Europe a little bit closer to how our people want it to be. How we can reflect on the message that the electorate sent us. How we will deliver on a stronger, safer, fairer and better Europe for all Europeans.”

Election of the President of the European Commission

“The European Parliament remains firmly behind the Lead Candidate process and we confirm that the European People’s Party is once again the largest political group in the European Parliament.

We will respect the due process. After the European Council communicates to us the name, we will invite the person to meet with Group leaders on Tuesday (2 July). The aim of this is to determine the candidate able to form the necessary qualified majority in Parliament to become the next Commission President. A candidate with a political programme that is able to capture the main electoral messages and reflect the views of the majority of the House.

The European Parliament stands ready to move the smooth process forward for electing a new Commission President without delay as soon as the European Council submits its candidate and for the hearings of the Commissioners after that.”

President Metsola’s full speech is available here.