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

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

I call the meeting to order.

Today, June 10, 2010, marks the 22^nd meeting of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Today we are continuing our study into human rights in Venezuela. Today we have one witness, Rabbi Adam Scheier, from Congregation Shaar Hashomayim. He is here to talk to us about human rights and the treatment of the Jewish community in Venezuela.

I see that Mr. Dorion has his hand up.

Mr. Dorion, please.

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

I have a point of order. Mr. Chair, I put forward motions before this subcommittee some three weeks ago now, more specifically, on May 20, and I see that we are not discussing those motions. I would ask that we set aside a maximum of 15 minutes today to study the second motion, which we started looking at but did not study.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Thank you.

The intention I'd had was to...as I'd mentioned to Mr. Dorion outside of the proceedings of this committee. I pulled him aside in the committee room at our last meeting and suggested I would try to arrange to have a special meeting at which we could discuss the motions.

What I said at the time, and I'll say it publicly to the group as a whole, is that in my view, it would take more than 15 minutes to discuss Mr. Dorion's three motions. It might even take more than 15 minutes to discuss one of them based on previous practice. So it seemed appropriate for me to try to find a time for a special meeting for that so we could devote an entire hour. I'm not sure if that's acceptable to the group.

I should ask, first of all, if it would be acceptable to Mr. Dorion to look for a time for a special meeting. It would have to be next week.

Does that seem like a reasonable thing to do?

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

I would be willing to make that compromise, but I want a firm meeting time set as soon as possible, next Tuesday, for instance.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

That strikes me as being a reasonable proposal. We've already done one such meeting on a different topic, but we've chosen an hour that seemed to be all right.

If the group is willing to leave it in my hands I'll try to arrange with the clerk to find a time, perhaps that same time, which was 9 a.m. on a Tuesday. We will confirm, and if that's okay we could perhaps set up a meeting.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

That doesn't work for me, Chair, but I leave it in your hands.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

As I said, we are trying to find “a” time. I just threw that out as a possibility.

I agree with Mr. Dorion that we don't know what the House schedule is, so sooner is definitely better than later.

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Mr. Marston.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I'm looking at June 15. Could we start early on Tuesday, June 15?

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Possibly.

Would members be okay if we had the clerk discuss this with your offices off-line? Right now we're digging into the time the witness has.

[Some hon. members]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

So we can figure that out.

I would now invite Rabbi Scheier to begin his testimony. Afterwards we will have questions from the members.

Thank you.

[Rabbi Adam Scheier, Congregation Shaar Hashomayim]

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to express my appreciation for the invitation to address this committee today.

As well, I'd like to commend this committee for giving its attention to this pressing issue of human rights in Venezuela. It's an honour to speak in front of the distinguished gathering.

In particular, it's an honour to speak before a personal hero of mine and a great leader of human rights in Canada and around the world, the Honourable Irwin Cotler.

So it really is a pleasure to be here. As I know my allotted time is limited, I'll get right to the point.

The Jewish community of Venezuela was once a successful, thriving community. They lived with a sense of security and peace and continuity, living in harmony with their fellow Venezuelan citizens. At the community's peak only 10 years ago, there were 24,000 members of the Jewish community of Venezuela. Today there are 12,000 Jews living in Venezuela, and the numbers are decreasing every year.

Just this past week, I had the opportunity to speak with the Venezuelan chief rabbi, Rabbi Pynchas Brener, who said that right now, as we speak, the community is holding its breath and waiting to see who else is leaving. Having lost half the community in the last decade, as the school year now comes to a close, now it is the time when many of the families are announcing that their turn as well has come to leave Venezuela, a country that many of these families have called home for many generations.

Why are they leaving? Why are the Jews leaving Venezuela? It is because the government of Hugo Chávez has created an environment of fear and terror for the Jewish citizens of Venezuela. In 2004 and 2007 there were two separate government raids on Jewish communal institutions. The alleged purpose of the raid was to search for weapons and contraband in the Jewish communal institutions. The real purpose of the raid was to demonstrate that the Jewish community and all who support Israel are unwelcome in Venezuela.

The 2004 raid, for example, was carried out in the Jewish community school Colegio Hebraica at 6:30 a.m. on a school day. Twenty-five policemen, many of them armed and masked, held the children hostage inside the locked school while performing their search. Of course, the search produced no tangible results. It was unfruitful as declared by the government, but the threatening message was clearly conveyed.

A similar raid was carried out in 2007 on the Centro Social, Cultural y Deportivo Hebraica, a social and sports club. Once again, the government representatives discovered nothing inside the Jewish communal institution, although the members of the Jewish community live in fear that in the course of the raid the government obtained the Jewish community's records off of the club's computers.

In January 2009, in the early morning hours of the Jewish Sabbath, 15 unidentified men broke into the Tiferet Israel synagogue in Caracas. They destroyed offices, they wrote threatening messages on the synagogue's interior walls, and they desecrated holy objects. One month later, in February, a bomb was thrown into the Beth Shmuel synagogue, damaging property and sending a threatening message to the Jewish community.

For your perusal, I'd like to submit into evidence, as we discussed before, Mr. Chairman, some photographs that I took on a subsequent visit following these attacks on the community.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

I'll ask the clerk to take them from you. Then she'll pass them on to the members, who can then circulate them to each other as you continue.

[Rabbi Adam Scheier]

Following those most recent attacks in 2009, I visited the Jewish community of Caracas in a gesture of solidarity and to gain information on what indeed took place in this attack on the Jewish community. I've maintained contact with members of the community over the past year, and on their behalf, I've been asked to express gratitude to the Canadian government, to Parliament, for the motions that have been tabled, for the various petitions that have been presented on behalf of the beleaguered Jewish community of Venezuela, and for the courageous diplomatic gesture that Canada has made by representing Israel's consular interests since the departure of Israel's ambassador since he was thrown out in January of 2009.

The Government of Venezuela is sensitive to how it's perceived in the community of nations, and we've been reassured that the international voice of condemnation is the one ray of hope for the future of political and religious freedom in Venezuela. And yet, that being said, the Jewish community lives in fear. I ask you to listen to some of the words of the students, some of the young Jewish people who are growing up in Chávez's Venezuela.

Orly Margulis, who is now graduating from grade 8, wrote--and I haven't changed one word from her e-mail to me--the following:

I feel that the anti-Semitism is a huge problem in Venezuela. I'm afraid to go out because of the insecurity and all the trouble that the Venezuelan government did. The president hates the Jewish people, and recently he cursed Israel and blamed us for the dead people in Gaza which makes me very angry. I'm sad that this country--a country that welcomed the Jews after the World War II--is now one of the most dangerous places in the world, and one that is a very anti-Semitic country.

She's in grade 8.

Eduardo Herdan, grade 11, said this:

Since the war in Gaza broke out a year and a half ago, the president of Venezuela has been progressively attacking the Jewish community. Whether it is verbally, by insulting us on national television, or by expelling the Israeli ambassador, we have felt his anti-Semitism. The president's remarks have been transmitted to the Venezuelan population, which has been increasingly turning more hostile towards the Jewish community.

Mr. Chairman, the children are afraid. They shudder when they see images or hear recordings of their president; they're fearful when they hear him speak about Israel.

Listen to his language from this past week, in response to the flotilla incident off the coast of Gaza. I'm not asking you to look at his political approach, but listen to his language.

As part of a diatribe that accused Israel of financing his opposition, accused the Mossad of sending assassination teams to target Chávez in Venezuela, and claimed that Israeli forces are all over the Caribbean, Chávez also said, “Maldito seas, Estado de Israel. Maldito seas, terrorista y asesino.” That's saying: curse you, state of Israel; curse you, you terrorist and murderer.

Do you know why these words cause the Jewish citizens of Venezuela to fear for their safety, for the institutions they've worked so hard to build, and for their children's safety? It's not only because of their affinity for and their love for the state of Israel. It's because Chávez's words are the very same words that the vandals wrote on the walls of their beloved synagogue in that early morning raid, as evidenced in some of the photographs that are being circulated.

They wrote on January 2009, Sabbath morning, on the walls of the synagogue, “Israel malditos. No los queremos. Asesinos.” That's saying: cursed Israel; we don't want murderers.

That's while the very same country's emperor curses Israel and calls them murderers in his political speeches.

On the one hand, the government officially distances itself from the acts of vandalism and terrorism. On the other hand, Chávez echoes these acts in his speeches.

Ernesto Spiro, a teacher in the school, a leader in the Caracas Jewish community, shared the following with me. He said he felt fear for his close ones and uncertainty about his future. As the son of Holocaust survivors, the hatred of the Venezuelan government toward Jews is prevented from becoming a more aggressive manifestation toward them “only because of the fear of being recognized by the world for what we, Venezuelan Jews, know”.

He says: Sincerely speaking, if I would have an economical background to support my family, long ago, we would have immigrated to another country....My mother, who is in love with Venezuela, is sadly but constantly speaking to us, about the feeling she has, the time to leave the country, is nearing.

He writes that he's been a teacher since 1995: I have watched hundreds of my pupils leave Venezuela for good. I feel like the captain of a sinking ship, who is the last to abandon it.

Mr. Chairman, the children of Venezuela are afraid. They're losing sleep at night. Families are making preparations to leave, to join the many who have already left.

Canada enjoys diplomatic and economic ties with Venezuela. It's time to leverage this relationship. It's time to take a principled stance.

In response to the 2009 attacks on the Jewish communal institutions, arrests were made and a facade of justice was presented to the world, yet there have been no trials. The Jewish community and the world have been left in the dark as to the sentence of, or the fate of, those who were allegedly apprehended for these crimes.

There's an unspoken consensus in the Jewish community of Venezuela that the Chávez government is the only body in the country that possesses the means, the coordination, and the distorted political desire to carry out such attacks. The international community, led by Canada, must demand an impartial, independent, and internationally sanctioned investigation of the attacks of January and February 2009.

As well, the members of the Jewish community know that anti-Semitism is the official policy of the Chávez government. Whether it's because of his aspirations to be admired by Ahmadinejad or Iran--or for other political or personal reasons, I won't guess as to what--Chávez has created an environment of terror and fear for the Venezuelan Jewish community.

We shouldn't be oblivious to the fact that the same words that were written in the context of a threatening and vandalistic raid are used by Chávez in his presidential speeches. The synagogue vandals are either agents of the government or are following the government's not-too-subtle leadership. Either possibility should be unacceptable to Canada and unacceptable to the international community.

Maurisio Rubenstein, a tenth grader, said—this was translated from Spanish by one of her classmates—the following: The Venezuelan government shows anti-Semitism in many different ways, but everything falls into place with the certainty of the lack of trust we have with our government. Our own president both curses and verbally attacks Israel....Whenever synagogues and religious buildings are attacked, everybody stays silent....I feel as if we are repeating the past. I feel as if the Holocaust was about to happen once again. I believe we shouldn't let it repeat ever again.

Mr. Chairman, the rhythms of history have provided us with tragic lessons as to how minority communities are marginalized, terrorized, and finally dehumanized.

Firstly, their beliefs are marginalized. The Jews of Venezuela today have reason to fear expressing their personal beliefs and their support for Israel.

Secondly, their religious gathering places are terrorized. This has certainly been the case with the Caracas Jewish community, which has no guarantee against further government raids or government-sponsored attacks.

Finally, the community has existential fears concerning the next step in the escalation of words and actions against the Jewish community.

If we wait too long, one of two eventualities will occur. Either every Jew will flee the country, as has been happening, or further tragedy will befall the community. Either possibility should be unacceptable to those concerned about the situation of human rights in Venezuela.

I thank you for your time and for the attention that you have given to this pressing matter.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Thank you very much.

We have enough time that I think we can get away with eight-minute rounds.

We'll start with the Liberals.

Mr. Silva, would you start.

[Mario Silva, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thank you.

I want to begin, Rabbi Scheier, by saying thank you for being here. I want to state that I share your sentiments about our esteemed colleague Professor Cotler. But I want to note, for the record, the fact that I was the one who called you, not Professor Cotler, in case anybody else on the committee wants to know.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Mario Silva, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

There's a reason why I wanted to call you before this committee. To give a little bit of history, we had met on a number of occasions, and you had spoken quite eloquently and brought some testimonies also about the Jewish community in Venezuela. It was out of that very concern that you had expressed, and that I had shared, that I thought it was very important that this committee do a study on Venezuela.

What I've seen and read is quite alarming and very concerning. The way in which any country treats its minority populations is indicative of how it reacts towards issues of human rights on a larger scale.

I want to know if what has happened to the Jewish community and the way it has been harassed are patterns unique to the Jewish community. Are they going after other communities, or is it really an anti-Jewish campaign that is being put on by the government?

[Rabbi Adam Scheier]

First, I would like to express my gratitude for the invitation and for your considering me for this testimony.

I can only speak based on my interactions with the Jewish community and my experience there. However, when I visited, the community did remark that one unique aspect of the Caracas Jewish community is the level of interaction and partnership with the Muslim community there, because both feel threatened.

I don't know about incidents within the Muslim community in Caracas. I don't know about the level of that threat, but I do know that there is a natural partnership and brotherhood because of the stance that Chávez has taken towards religious institutions in Venezuela.

[Mario Silva, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Okay. Thank you very much.

I have a couple of very brief questions, and then I'll turn it over to my colleague Mr. Cotler.

First, do you know what the numbers of the Jewish community were, say, 10 to 15 years ago compared to today?

Second, you discussed President Chávez, but some of the most dangerous and anti-Jewish rhetoric has come not from Chávez but from his very close advisers and senior people. I heard testimonies, and the language is extremely appalling. His silence and the fact that he's not condemning these people speak volumes.

Chávez has been very critical of Israel, but he has been very careful not to attack the Jewish community too much. His senior advisers have attacked the Jewish community and have made some very anti-Jewish statements, and he still keeps them in senior positions in the government. He's playing this game, and I'm wondering if you can flesh out some of those statements that have been made by some of his advisers.

[Rabbi Adam Scheier]

I will first address the question of numbers. Ten years ago there were 24,000 members of the community; now it is 12,000 and diminishing. In terms of the student population, the head of the school mentioned to me that a number of years ago--I'm assuming it was 10 years ago as well--there were 3,000 students in the school; today there are 1,100.

One of the shocking visuals upon visiting the school is to see the graduation rosters, the banners that are hanging from the ceiling in the school. Over the years the banners get shorter and shorter, and the names on the banners get larger and larger to fill the space there.

They fear that this coming year the number of students in the school will fall below 1,000, which would be a huge blow to the community's level of self-regard, the level of pride they have in the attendance in their Jewish schools. To go from such a high number to such a low number severely impacts the community.

In terms of Chávez's rhetoric or the rhetoric of his close associates, not only has he not distanced himself from this rhetoric, but, as I tried to point out, in these last speeches and in his speech last week, it was almost as if he was getting the cues for his speech...or as if his speech writers were the actual terrorists who wrote on the walls of the synagogue. They were the very same words, the very same sentiments. We shouldn't ignore this fact.

On a number of occasions he himself has made some very carefully veiled threats. I believe on one occasion, in a Christmas speech, he mentioned “those who murdered our Saviour”, and spoke about their control of the world in that context. It's not only his advisers; it's his rhetoric as well that's very threatening to the community.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Go ahead, Professor Cotler.

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you.

I'd like to look at the Iranian connection to Chávez and to what might be happening in Venezuela.

As you may know, the Argentinian judiciary determined that, in fact, seven leaders of the Iranian government, past and present, were involved in the planning and perpetration of the greatest terrorist atrocity in Argentina since the end of World War II, that is, in the bombing of the Jewish community centre, the AMIA, in 1994. As a result of the Argentinian judiciary's decision, there is presently an Interpol arrest warrant out for the present minister of defence in Iran, Ahmad Vahidi. It hasn't stopped Ahmadinejad from appointing him as the minister of defence. It's almost as if he were rewarded for his involvement.

So my question is what evidence is there of direct Iranian influence, or involvement, on Chávez and the climate of fear that has developed? Is there any concern in the community, with some of the Iranian penetration that we know about in Latin America with respect to terrorist penetration, that it's also prospectively present for Venezuela?