By Alison@Creekside
Not content with awarding Stephen Harper their Gold Medallion human rights award and pledging to create a Stephen Harper Centre for Human Rights, B’nai Brith Canada announced on Friday that they will nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Moral clarity has been lost across much of the world, with terror, hatred and antisemitism filling the void,” said Frank Dimant, CEO, B’nai Brith Canada. “Throughout, there has been one leader which has demonstrated international leadership and a clear understanding of the differences between those who would seek to do evil, and their victims.”
Yeah, about victims . . . one minute of aerial footage of Al-Shejaiya in Gaza:
B’nai Brith was a successful advocate of Canada cutting off funding to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency — the only UN human relief agency willing to work in Gaza under fire. (Eight of their workers died in this last incursion.) Last month, B’nai Brith called for the disbanding of UNRWA altogether. Canada is no longer a donor country to UNRWA.
Back to Frank’s presser, where he notes that as a “professor” he is eligible to make a nomination to the Nobel Foundation:
In accordance with the rules of the Nobel Foundation it gives me great pleasure to nominate in my capacity as Professor of Modern Israel Studies at Canada Christian College, Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the Nobel Peace Prize in honour of the outstanding moral leadership he has demonstrated.”
Frank Dimant is a professor at Charles McVety’s Canada Christian College in Toronto because McVety awarded him an honorary doctorate there in 2004 at a ceremony attended by Jason Kenney. Texas millionaire televangelist and Christian Zionist Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United For Israel rents office space from McVety at Canada Christian College for his Canadian operations.
Dimant: “We [Jews] and Israel are not alone because of you and the tremendous leadership of Dr. McVety and Dr. Hagee.” Go on, click that last link.
Three years ago, in this Christian College video . . .
. . . Dimant, Jason Kenney (far left), and McVety (behind Dimant) shared the podium as Dimant courted his presumably mostly Christian audience. He praised Harper and the Cons as friends of Israel and called on God to protect Israel from the United Nations “as we await the messianic times which are just around the corner.”
In March 2014, in a more intimate setting in a synagogue, Dimant spoke about his relationship to Harper:
I happen to know Mr.Harper from the days he was in the opposition and the truth is we were on first name basis because the Jewish community was not in favor of Conservatives — at that time they were called the Alliance Party and before that the Reform Party. The Jewish community was traditionally liberals and the Jewish community was very much onside with the Liberal Party of the day. When Mr. Harper and before him Mr. Stockwell Day wanted to get their message out to our community, all the doors were closed in their face. It’s very difficult to believe when today you see the world’s premier friend of Israel — that when he wanted to speak about his attitude towards Israel, that door was shut.
“Only one organization at that time — and I was B’nai Brith and our publication The Jewish Tribune gave them a forum, gave him a platform, gave them an opportunity to say: ‘This is how we really stand on Israel; this is where we stand on anti-Semitism; and this is where we stand on the values that we share with you.’
“I’ve had the good fortune in my lifetime to work with many governments. I’ve gone to Auschwitz with Prime Minister Chretien, I’ve gone to Israel with Art Eglington, I’ve gone to Israel with Jean Chretien, and I went now with our Prime Minister again. [Note Harper’s visit this past January.]
“And I saw the difference, saw the difference. And the difference was that here you had a man like Harper who you can feel — FEEL — the love that he has for the State of Israel, the affection that he feels for the Jewish people. So you may ask why. Why? Good question.
“Mr. Harper is a religious Christian. He believes. He believes when it says ‘Blessed are those who bless the Jewish people.’ And he says Canada is blessed because we bless the Jewish people. He really deeply believes that. As does Jason Kenney, as do some of the other ministers — they are religious people. So they feel it.”
As to the Nobel Peace Prize nomination, I’m blaming Michael Byers.
Six weeks ago, in “The Harper Plan for unilateral Canadian disarmament,” UBC prof Byers suggested that despite all his tough military world stage talk, Harper might be eligible for the Nobel because he has “reduced defence spending to just 1% of GDP — the lowest level in Canadian history.”
Yeah, I know — you’re still stuck back there at the idea of a Stephen Harper Centre for Human Rights.
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