Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Canadian Jewish Congress

Canadian Jewish Congress: Most of those being discouraged from applying for refugee status are Hungarian, Slovak and Czech nationals of Roma heritage, many of whom say they fear persecution from neo-Nazi skinheads, according to Huffington Post. Farber, a founding member of JRAN and former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, told The Canada that the Jewish community has a deeply ingrained sense of the need to protect refugees and to speak out on their behalf. There are parallels to be drawn between the way the Roma are being treated today and how Canada discouraged Jews hoping to immigrate during the early part of the 20th century, Farber said and OTTAWA The federal government has found itself at odds with an unlikely adversary: a Jewish group. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has courted the Jewish community and considers it an important ally on his foreign policy agenda, but a new Jewish group is questioning the governments commitment to human rights one year after the passage of controversial legislation on refugees. The bill made it much more difficult for refugee claimants from certain designated countries those in which the immigration minister believes there are few bona fide cases of persecution to seek asylum in Canada. The two-week-old Jewish Refugee Action Network JRAN whose notable members include Stephen Lewis, Michele Landsberg and Bernie Farber believes the legislation is draconian and heartless and must be opposed. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.