Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on June 10th, 2010

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I only intend to use a portion of this for questioning the witness, and I have something of other urgent matter that I'd like to go in camera for afterwards.

You've pretty well covered everything else, Rabbi. Thank you for taking the time to come here, and of course for travelling.

How many times have you been to Venezuela now, to the community?

[Rabbi Adam Scheier]

I've been there once.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

You've been there once.

Was there any evidence that media in Venezuela reported that...? You said there was a shakedown once, there was a break-in and then a bomb thrown in. There have been arrests, but there has been no trial started, I take it.

Have the media reported it in any way, shape, or form?

[Rabbi Adam Scheier]

Absolutely. The media reports all this, but of course within a controlled manner. Everybody knows that these events are happening. Everyone is aware. That's the point of these attacks. No one knows who does them, except for the government raids. The government raids didn't break any laws. They're certainly within the right of a government, if they have suspicion, to go through the protocol and raid a community institution.

Why these are happening, no one knows. It's being reported. Who's doing the attacks? We still don't know. Yet it is being reported. And that also makes the Jewish community fearful, that this is out there. And yet the outpouring of concern and the natural solidarity.... People are afraid to show gestures of solidarity. It's not an open society like we enjoy, and that's what makes them fearful as well.

Yes, they are reported. Everyone in Venezuela knows that Jewish communal institutions were attacked in 2009. Why it was done, and by whom--no idea.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

But after the damage was done, the media missed the obvious linkage with the verbatim statements written on the walls by the vandals, the terrorists, the thugs—whatever name we want to put on them—and the verbatim words from Hugo Chávez.

[Rabbi Adam Scheier]

I have not seen any media outlet make that connection.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

With the amount of evidence from the particular three separate incidences, and of course the ambassador being thrown out, the Rabbi's....

You know, good point that if you're concerned about your neighbours...and of course we've had witnesses who have contradicted this, that it's not the common dialogue in the street that anybody's afraid of Americans or Colombians. In fact, the last witness said that they have much of their family from Colombia, as so do many of the people in Venezuela.

That he would snuggle up to Ahmadinejad, the number one human rights offender, I would think, in the world.... We just did a report on that. I would even go further than you, Rabbi, and say that his is the most dangerous regime we've ever seen. Of course, that was borne out in a lot of the testimony we had.

I want to thank you for your testimony.

Mr. Chair, I want to ask, in concern of the Iran report, that we go in camera right now and deal with that important issue that I'd like to discuss with the members here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Okay.

Rabbi, thank you very much for coming. We really appreciate your testimony.

I now have to go to what's typically a motion, on which there's no debate, to go in camera. Once we do that, you'll have to leave the room.

[Rabbi Adam Scheier]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

You don't have to leave yet. We haven't determined whether we're going in camera.

All in favour of going in camera?

Okay. I see a majority. We are going in camera.

Rabbi, thank you very much.

[Proceedings continue in camera]