By SHELDON KIRSHNER, Staff Reporter
CJN
TORONTO ? Rights and Democracy, a Canadian government agency whose mandate is to promote democratic development and defend human rights around the world, has been plunged into
turmoil after its new chair challenged fund ing to three Middle Eastern organizations that are high ly critical of Israel.
Aurel Braun
Aurel Braun, chair of the Montreal-based agency and a University of To ronto professor, said two Palestinian groups, Al-Haq and Al Mezan, and an Israeli one, B'Tselem, should have been denied
grants of $10,000 each that were disbursed last year.
Braun, appointed to his position by the Conservative government last March, about a month after the funds were allocated, charged Al-Haq and Al Mezan with being ?toxic' organizations.
Al-Haq has links to terrorism, he said, while Al Mezan has demonized Israel. B'Tselem, he added, is bla tantly partisan.
The three groups were asked in e-mail messages to respond to Braun's accusations, but they did not reply.
Braun added that such non-governmental organizations should only be eligible for federal funds if they're non-partisan, impartial, have no ties to terrorism and don't offend Canadians.
Warren Allmand, a former Liberal federal cabinet minister and president of Rights and Democracy from 1997 to 2002, said in an interview last week he would have opposed in principle the fund ing
of organizations associated with terrorism.
But to the best of his knowledge, based on his discussions with Al-Haq and Al Mezan officials in the Palestinian territories during his presidency, there is no evidence that either group has ties
to terrorism.
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In earlier comments made to the CBC, All mand said the Conservative government had ?packed' its board with members who share the ?biases' of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Problems at Rights and Democracy, which operates on an $11-million annual budget, erupted after Har per's government installed new board members in 2009.
Disagreements arose over the propriety of funding organizations such as Al-Haq, which is based in the West Bank town of Ramallah and monitors human rights violations, and Al Mezan, which promotes
human rights from its headquarters in the Jabalya Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
The philosophical clashes reportedly pitted old and new board members against each other and involved the agen cy's 47 staff members.
Remy Beauregard, the president of Rights and Democracy, died after a stormy board meeting early last month.
After his sudden death, a public letter bearing all the names of the agency's employees was sent to Braun and two of his fellow board members. The letter said they had lost confidence in Braun
and demanded his immediate resignation.
Since then, three senior managers have been reportedly suspended with pay and a host of non-governmental hu man rights organizations have called Braun's comments a ?public smear campaign'
intended to stymie NGOs from monitoring and reporting human rights violations.
Last week, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters that he would not intervene in Rights and Democracy discussions at the board level and that he would ?make sure that
[it] is smooth-running and functioning correctly.?
Cannon met Braun in Ottawa late last week, and Braun described the meeting as ?very constructive.?
The controversy swirling around Rights and Democracy is reminiscent of the federal government's decision late last year to cut funding to KAIROS, a church-based organization that Immigration
Minister Jason Kenney charged has taken ?a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions' campaign against Israel.
Braun, a professor of international relations and political science, claimed the director of Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, is a senior activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,
which has carried out terrorist attacks aimed at Israel since the Six Day War.
Several years ago, Jabarin, who has denied membership in the PFLP, was prevented by Israel from travelling to the Netherlands to accept a Dutch human rights prize. Israeli and international human
rights groups protested the ban.
Israel's Supreme Court reviewed the case, but dismissed a petition calling for an end to the travel ban, prompting the Dutch foreign minister to express disappointment.
According to Braun, Al Mezan, or the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, has justified the killings of Israeli civilians by terrorists as acts of resistance, brand ed Israel as a criminal entity
and participated in the anti-Israel boycott and divestment campaign.
NGO Monitor, an Israeli organization in Jerusalem, says that Al Mezan has pursued ?a virulently anti-Israel political agenda, while entirely ignoring Palestinian terrorism.?
B'Tselem ? an Israeli NGO whose stated objective is ?to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the occupied territories' ? has defended Al
Mezan, saying it attempts ?to address the needs of the marginalized' Palestinian population in the territories.
Braun, claiming that B'Tselem has taken ?a very partisan' position on the Arab-Israeli dispute, said it does not deserve to be funded by Rights and Democracy, which was created in the late 1980s
by then-prime minister Brian Mulroney to encourage democracy and monitor human rights.
B'Tselem, formally known as The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, provides information to Knesset members, participates in protests in the West Bank and
publishes material on such current issues as torture, restrictions on movement and expropriation of land.
Braun said that Beauregard, just days before his untimely death of a heart attack, decided to ?repudiate' the grants to Al-Haq, Al Mezan and B'Tselem.
?He understood that funding these groups was a huge mistake. He admitted we shouldn't have funded these organizations. He said we should have done our homework better.?
Lamenting that the atmosphere at Rights and Democracy has turned poisonous of late, Braun said his opponents have launched a ?vicious,? ?repugnant' and ?irresponsible' smear campaign of
?misrepresentation' against him and some of his fellow board members.
To Braun, the main issues here are accountability and transparency.
Charging that the chairman's report had been sent to Parliament before he had an opportunity to read it, he said, ?The board has to be responsible to the Canadian people, but we did not re ceive
co-operation from the staff and found serious problems.
?This is about accountability and transparency,? he reiterated.
Attempts to elicit comments from the acting president of Rights and Democracy, Jacques Gauthier, were unsuccessful. Gauthier was twice reached by phone in Washington, D.C., but he was unable to
answer questions. On the third attempt to contact him, his voice mailbox was full.
