01/10/2012 - The University of Haifa has decided to confer an honorary doctorate on Canada’s Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, in Toronto on November 4, 2012. The university says Mr. Kenney will receive the award “in recognition of his steadfast position against anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance,” yet his record makes a mockery of this claim.
Under his leadership the Canadian government is acting to deter asylum seekers and refugees from seeking and obtaining protection in Canada. The “Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act,” passed in Parliament in June 2012, authorizes incarceration for up to a year of men, women and children over 16 who arrive in Canada in an “irregular” fashion. This echoes Canada’s refusal to admit Jewish refugees in the late 1930s (“None is Too Many”).
Read more and sign the petition asking the University of Haifa to rescind its decision to grant Mr. Kenney this degree via
Oggetto: Roma Centre Fact Sheet: Jason Kenney praises Ustasha supporter Cardinal Stepinac
Data: 07 ottobre 2012 22.10.13 GMT+02.00
October 5, 2012
ROMA COMMUNITY CENTRE FACT SHEET
Jason Kenney praises Ustasha supporter Cardinal Stepinac
This fact sheet from the Social Justice Committee of Roma Community Centre, Toronto, Canada, presents information about Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney, his impending honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa, Israel, and Mr. Kenney’s public expression of admiration for Ustasha supporter Cardinal Alozije Stepinac.
1
HAIFA UNIVERSITY HONOURS JASON KENNEY,
CANADIAN MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
• Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, is to receive an honorary doctorate in Toronto, Canada, from the University of Haifa on November 4, 2012.
• The doctorate is being conferred upon him for “recognition of his
steadfast position against antisemitism, racism and intolerance and, in particular, for his solidarity with the State of Israel and his condemnation of Israel Apartheid Week.” (http://www.haifa-univ.ca/) He “has continued to demonstrate a leadership role in combating all forms of anti-Semitism.” (1)
2
MR. KENNEY PUBLICLY PRAISES
FASCIST USTASHA SUPPORTER CARDINAL ALOZIJE STEPINAC
• In 2009, Mr. Kenney was presented with a gift at a Croatian event in Canada;
in his speech, he said:
“I have in my office a prayer card with a picture of Cardinal Stepinac, who was himself a kind of martyr for Croatia and for the faith, and he for me is one of the great heroes of the 20th century.” (2)
3
JERUSALEM POST WRITES ABOUT USTASHA
From a 2010 article in the Jerusalem Post, “Mass grave of history: Vatican’s WW II identity crisis,” by Julia Gorin, quoting U.S. historian Jared Israel:
“(Ante) Pavelic, who once criticized Hitler for originally being too soft on the Jews, was the founder of the fascist Ustashas, who were engaging in terrorism all over Europe to ‘liberate’ Croatia from Yugoslavia. He famously said, ‘A good Ustasha is one who can use a knife to cut a child from the womb of its mother.’"
At the time, Pavelic was being harbored in Mussolini's Italy - where his Ustasha soldiers were being trained - after France sentenced him to death for masterminding the 1934 double assassination of Yugoslavian King Alexander I and French foreign minister Louis Barthou. When Hitler invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, Pavelic was activated and became fuehrer, or “Poglavnik” of the new, clerical-fascist Croatia.
…. Stepinac held a banquet for Pavelic, blessed the Ustasha leader and regime, calling them “God’s hand at work,” and the following month had Pavelic received by [Pope] Pius XII. This was four days after the massacre in the town of Glina, where the Ustashas locked hundreds of Serbian Orthodox inside their church and burned it down ....." (3)
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QUESTION
Should University of Haifa, Israel, honour a man who has publicly expressed admiration for a supporter of the Ustasha neo-Nazi regime?
DOCUMENTATION AND RELATED MATERIALS
(1) http://www.haifa-univ.ca/events.htm)
(2) (http://youtu.be/BtHVhfjXcS4)
(2.1) From Canadian Immigration News: “The Canadian immigration minister, Jason Kenney, on March 29th, 2009 officially announced that Canada has rescinded its visas for Croatian citizens. Representatives of the Croatian community in Canada, which numbers 130,000 members, hailed the rescinding of visas as ‘great success’ and proof of Croatian-Canadian relations, as well as having their requests met.” https://www.migrationexpert.com/canada/visa/canadian_immigration_news/2011/Sep/1
(3) (http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=169378)
• Jasenovac Research Institute, http://www.jasenovac.org/
• What was Jasenovac?” http://www.jasenovac.org/whatwasjasenovac.php
“From August 1941 to April 1945, hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Romas, as well as anti-fascists of many nationalities, were murdered at the death camp known as Jasenovac. Estimates of the total numbers of men, women and children killed there range from 300,000 to 700,000. And yet, despite the scale of the crimes committed there, most of the world has never heard of Jasenovac.”
• Jasenovac and the Holocaust in Yugoslavia: Analyses and Testimonies, edited by Barry M. Lituchy, Published by JRI, 2006
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