Local News
The CJN (Canadian Jewish News) responds to accusations by Jewish National Fund Canada that it has been unfair in its reporting on JNF Canada’s problems with the CRA
Back in August we printed a story titled “A detailed look at the awful predicament in which JNF Canada now finds itself since the CRA revoked its charitable status.” A large part of that story was taken from reporting done by Ellin Bessner for the CJN (Canadian Jewish News). Since then we have been asked by Bessner to give the CJN’s side of the story.
At the time we printed that story, and even up until the CJN approached us on Nov. 22, jewishpostandnews.ca did not contact the CJN for comment on JNF Canada’s’ accusations about their reporting. We regret our own lack of journalistic standards and have since removed that story from our website.
On November 22, we received an email from The CJN’s Bessner. She had come across the article we had on our website and reached out to us.
Bessner insisted that JNF Canada’s claims about The CJN’s reporting on the CRA story are false. Bessner adds that JNF Canada’s claim that the CJN never asked them for their views is also not true..
Following is Ellin Besser’s view of what happened between JNF Canada and the CJN:
After their Aug. 10 revocation, The CJN contacted the JNF to ask for an interview. They agreed to talk to The CJN, but asked us to wait to do the interview until Aug. 16, a full six days after the CRA revoked their charitable status. We waited because we wanted to give JNF enough time to speak to us fully. Also, there was Tisha B’av on Monday Aug. 12 so JNF’s staff was not available.
As JNF well knows, and the public knows because we put it into our reporting, The CJN team of Bessner and Jonathan Rothman conducted an hour-long, videotaped interview with JNF CEO Lance Davis by ZOOM, on Aug. 16. We even made sure that Davis made his own audio recording of the interview on his personal phone.
While other news organizations were quick off the mark after Aug. 10 to publish a JNF revocation story, these other outlets did not conduct a full journalistic investigation, and published only JNF’s side.
While waiting for our interview, we continued our reporting. We knew that under the Income Tax Act’s privacy rules, the CRA never comments on cases while the audits and negotiations are underway. In fact, by law, the CRA cannot divulge anything about its audit process to the public, until after a charity is revoked. Then, the public can ask for the CRA’s internal documents concerning the reasons why a charity was revoked. So we asked.
On Aug. 15, the day before our scheduled JNF interview, the CRA released to us 358 pages of internal documents regarding its dealings with JNF, including some documents dating back to 1967, when JNF Canada was officially granted charitable status in Canada.
No other news outlet in the world received the documents at this time; The CJN was the first. Our team read all the 358 pages the night before our interview.
During our interview with Lance Davis the next day, we told him that we had the CRA’s documents. During the interview, we went through the issues which the CRA documents had raised.
It was obvious that Davis had prepared talking points for his interview, as we had sent him the questions in advance, which they had requested. He was reading off another computer screen. Davis answered all our questions, including a list of issues raised in the CRA documents.
These ranged from missing paperwork, lack of oversight and direction, why documents were not provided in English or French but in Hebrew, why they were not kept in Canada but in Israel, why in-house travel expenses were not receipted the way CRA needed, why the donations to JNF from Canada went not to buying trees at all, until 2017, but to paying labour costs for workers in Israel.
We went back and forth with the JNF team over the next ten days by email, as we fact-checked issues. They also acknowledged this. They answered our fact-checking questions. We told them when our stories would likely be coming out, and we told them there would be print stories and a podcast or two.
In the meantime, to get our story as complete as possible, we consulted with financial experts and charity experts, with JNF donors and with our lawyers.
It became apparent that JNF was extremely careful about who we spoke to, as we learned they had vetted what one of the donor interviewees told us: JNF’s p.r. person told me he had heard the raw tape of our interview shortly after we had hung up after we conducted it, but long before it was published.
Only after all CJN’s due diligence, which was a full sixteen days after JNF’s revocation, did we publish our series of stories.
On the evening of Aug. 26, we reported on the contents of the CRA allegations, linking to the CRA documents, and that same evening, we also released our podcast containing JNF’s Davis’ interview. We also ran a lengthy print story early the next morning, again quoting Davis extensively.
The following day we ran another podcast with some donors’ views, and more JNF arguments.
Here are all the stories and articles which The CJN has published on the CRA/JNF story. https://thecjn.ca/news/jnf-canada/
JNF has been spinning things to attack our reporting, because they assume few people actually took the time to read The CJN’s work.
JNF is saying it was “blindsided” by the CRA’s revocation. But the truth is, and the documents which CRA released (and later JNF released and JNF told us) show JNF has been secretive about its own legal communications with the CRA dating back to 1967, and through four subsequent CRA audits. They received an amnesty from the new Revenue Minister in the 1990s.
The fifth audit, started in 2014 and has been the source of the agency’s latest problem over the last 10 years.
Unlike the CRA, JNF was always able to publicly release their legal communications and letters back and forth with CRA. They did not do this back in 1989, when they were told they were not in compliance. They did not do so in August 2019, when they received the official Notice of Intention to Revoke, from when the clock to revocation started ticking. And they did not do so in June 2023, even after JNF received a letter saying the NITR notice was confirmed.
Even during our interview, JNF did not disclose it had its own documents that could better show the context of its challenges dealing with the CRA. JNF chose to release these only in September on their website. But they selectively released a document here and there to a “friendly” columnist for the National Post. These documents would have shown the fact that JNF’s detractors in the anti-Zionist advocacy world of Independent Jewish Voices, had their letter writing campaigns and media statements and briefing reports taken into consideration by CRA communications staff.
JNF also did not disclose on its website their annual audit documents for the years between 2018 and 2023, where the auditors’ reports stated the CRA had informed JNF it was going to lose its charitable status.
This is a lack of transparency on JNF’s part, thus hiding this knowledge from their donors, supporters, and the wider public. They also did not file these with the CRA, as they were legally required to do.
Only after our stories came out, did JNF upload the missing paperwork to its own website and posted on the CRA’s.
Two things can be true at the same time: JNF was facing compliance problems with CRA rules for years and hid this from its donors and the Canadian public and JNF acknowledged to us and to the CRA that it wanted to keep this issue quiet.
It is also possible that JNF was treated unfairly by the CRA, who may have been influenced by anti-Israel groups, or anti-Israel staff. The CRA denies this, but only time and Access to Information requests for Cabinet documents and internal CRA communications will tell.
During the pandemic, JNF had requested and obtained some documents from the CRA through access to information requests, showing internal reports that outline the media campaigns/internal pressure on the department from anti-JNF groups including Independent Jewish Voices, who wanted to have the charity shut down.
JNF could have released these important documents to the CJN and to the wider public immediately, but chose not to do so. We only found them on the JNF website, in September. And we reported on this, too.
Likely this will all be decided by the Federal Court of Appeal.
Local News
New playground – “Gan Reut” (Friendship Garden) opens at Asper Campus
By BERNIE BELLAN It was a gorgeous Friday afternoon, October 3, when Lori Binder, Gray Academy Head of School (also Board of Jewish Education CEO) welcomed about 40 individuals to the opening of a brand new playground on the Asper Campus – situated exactly where the old playground (which had opened in 1997 with the opening of the campus) had been.
Most of the individuals who were there that day had played a role helping to see the new playground built – either as donors, or as members of organizations that had participated in the planning and construction of the new playground.
As Binder explained, “We wanted to call this the Friendship Garden. We wanted it to have a Hebrew name. ‘Reut’ – play, is the language of friendship and it’s also the language of learning. And so today for the very first time, as our kids were watching the structure be built – and that too was also an amazing learning tool, they began to learn to use the structure.”
Why was there a need for a new playground, some might wonder – when the old one was only 28 years old?
Binder cited several reasons for wanting a new playground: “A lot of injuries were happening because there was pea gravel, and the pea gravel was surrounded by a border of wood. And if you did not have the ability to step over or walk through the pea gravel, you could potentially have an injury.”
She added that “pea gravel is only used in 3% of playgrounds today because you might skid and need a bandaid or have a cut.”
“But we also recognized that with the broken structure and the inability for all children in our community to play we wanted to begin to envision a new structure,” Binder added.
The actual project took shape in a relatively short period of time. Design and construction was handled by a company known as Playgrounds R Us. President of the company, Matt Lacroix, noted that “typically a playground of not even this size” would take much longer to plan and build.
“We typically work with schools probably three to five years, sometimes two. So, from start to finish, for us to start a year and a half ago to now is pretty phenomenal,” Lacroix observed.
There are many new innovations included in Gan Reut, including the resilient rubber foundation, the handicap accessible play structures (that can even accommodate children in wheelchairs) and, on an unexpectedly hot October day – something that proved to be most welcome: shade everywhere you went.
Getting the project done required cooperation among Gray Academy, the Rady JCC, and the Asper Campus. When Binder first approached the Jewish Foundation for funding assistance, however, she said that initially, “we got denied.” However, rather than that being an impediment to moving forward, Binder said “it turned out to be a blessing.”
The reason, she explained, is the Jewish Foundation “plays such an integral role in matching us with potential donors, helping us bring something to light or getting something started.”
In the case of the playground project, it was the Rich family, led by Gavin Rich, who stepped up as lead donors. There were many other donors as well. (You can see all the donors’ names in the accompanying photo.) Also, the Jewish Foundation did come through with a grant – for the rubber foundation.
Binder spoke of the important role that play serves in children’s development: “Diane Ackerman states that play is the brain’s favourite way of learning. And if you go into the daycare or into any of our early childhood classrooms, you will see that they learn through play. Dr. Stewart Brown notes that nothing lights up a child’s brain-like play. And I bet some of you will want to also play because even at as adults, we like to play.”
The blue and white colour of the playground was also a deliberate choice, Binder noted. “Blue and white,” she suggested, was “very purposely chosen to match the colour of the Israeli flag and give us a reminder every day of coming to this amazing Jewish community campus.”
When it came to planning what would go into the playground, Binder thanked Rob Berkowits from the Rady JCC and Curtis Martin from the Asper Jewish Community Campus, “who were along for the journey…We also have many of our educators, an occupational therapist, early childhood specialists, elementary specialists, student life coordinators, all coming together with all of the different ideas.”
“I have to say it is overwhelming,” Binder added. “I’ve not really been involved in such a renovation project; it’s hard to make decisions. You can have a million different kinds of playgrounds.”
Not only will the playground, however, serve as a major enhancement to be enjoyed by students at Gray Academy and the Rady JCC daycare during weekdays, it will be open to everyone in the community 24/7, Binder noted.
Following Binder’s remarks, attendees heard from Rob Berkowits, CEO of the Rady JCC, who acknowledged the key role Binder had played in bringing the project to fruition: “I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to Lori Binder, Head of School at Gray Academy, for unwavering leadership in bringing this vision to life.”
Finally, Jill Winograd, who was representing the Asper Jewish Community Campus, offered remarks: “Spaces like this are more than slides or swings. They’re about belonging, imagination, and giving kids a safe place to grow together. So this project wasn’t about starting fresh, but renewal, taking something well used.
“So what makes this playground matter isn’t just the newer equipment or the safer surfaces, but the thoughtfulness behind it. Accessible roots, quiet corners. And spaces that welcome kids, parents and grandparents together. It’s built for inclusion and community. And I think grandparents is such a key word here because it’s really so lovely to see from our sponsors how many are in memory of grandparents and how special that time is at the playground for them.”
And, with that – and a ceremonial ribbon cutting by Gavin Rich and Marni Slonim, Grade 2 students from Gray Academy descended upon the structure – many with parents in tow, to demonstrate all the many features of the beautiful new playground.
Local News
Gray Academy registration numbers continuing their upward trajectory
By MYRON LOVE Lori Binder, Gray Academy’s Head of School and CEO of the Winnipeg Board of Jewish Education, is happy to report that this year’s enrolment stands at 517 – the highest back-to-school number since 2013-2014. “We have had to add a second Junior Kindergarten class and, for the second consecutive year, a third kindergarten class,” she says.
Gray Academy students speak of feeling safe and being able to connect with their roots. As Binder points out, many of the students have parents and even grandparents who attended Gray Academy or its founding high school, Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate. In addition, 25% of the staff are Gray Academy alumni.
The school also plays an integral role in helping families moving to Winnipeg from Israel, Argentina, Brazil and other countries to adapt to their new homes. Over the past two years, the EAL (English as an additional language) program has expanded significantly to accommodate growing needs.
Gray Academy is one of the only JK-12 Jewish day schools in Canada. The school remains committed to academic excellence, along with programming that builds community and connection. Gray Academy was the first Jewish day school in Canada to receive accreditation from Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS), a community of independent schools that meet and exceed rigorous national standards that inspire excellence and ongoing school improvement.
New this year, Binder notes, is the just-built AJCC Gan Re’ut (Friendship Garden), a fully accessible playground that children of all ages and abilities can use and enjoy. A new rubber foundation and accessible equipment make the new playground safer and more accessible for everyone.
She further reports that the four-year-old Gray Academy-Tough Duck Community Ice Rink, located on Danzker Field, has been enhanced with an asphalt base so that the facility can be used year-round for a wider variety of activities.
The school has also expanded its after-school music programs this year. In addition to traditional band and drumline programs, students can also take part in jazz, rock and vocal ensembles.
Binder notes that parents and grandparents of children are welcome to engage with the school. “Last year we launched a new “Grandpals” program for grandparents,” she says. “We offer several different ways for grandparents or any special seniors in students’ lives to engage with the school while being able to see their grandchildren.”
And did I mention that, over the years, Gray Academy’s outstanding debating program has been placing very well in national and international competitions?
In terms of tefillah and spirituality, Binder reports that the school is building on past informal connections with local clergy to allow more student interaction with our community’s rabbis and cantors. Throughout the year, clergy from various congregations will be coming in to the school in a more formal way.
A very important part of Gray Academy’s mission is fostering a love of Israel. Over the years, quite a few Gray Academy graduates have made Aliyah.
An important part of Israel education has been the nearly 30-year-long Jewish Federation of Winnipeg P2G (Partnership 2Gether) student and teacher exchange programs linking Gray Academy high school students with their counterparts at Danciger High School in the northern Israeli community of Kiryat Shmona and Nachshonei Hachula Elementary School in Yesod Hamala in the Hula Valley. For many years, Gray Academy would send groups of six to eight Grade 10 and 11 students to visit Danciger. Likewise, Danciger would send students to visit Gray Academy.
In fact, a group of Danciger students and faculty happened to be in Winnipeg on October 7, 2023. When the group was forced unexpectedly to extend their stay in Winnipeg until flights to Israel could resume, Danciger students and staff participated in our community’s subsequent show of support for our brothers and sisters in Israel.
While the program has been paused since then, Binder reports that she was in Israel in July and visited both schools. “With many Israelis having been able to return to their homes in the north after nearly 18 months of displacement, we are hoping to restart the exchange programs in the spring,” she says.
Binder adds that two young Israelis volunteering with Shaarey Zedek Congregation in something called the “ShinShinim program” (which is a year of service in the Diaspora prior to serving in the IDF) have recently arrived in Winnipeg and will be paying weekly visits to the school. The Jewish Agency for Israel’s ShinShinim program sends Israeli Grade 12 graduates to Jewish communities in the diaspora to enhance the teaching of Hebrew and love for Israel.
To commemorate October 7, the school – for the third year in a row – will be holding “Havdallah for Hope,” a memorial program for high school students, followed by Havdalah for the entire student body and community guests.
Binder points out that the school has a strong focus on affordability. “It is very important to us that no child is turned away because a family can’t afford to pay,” she says.
She notes that Manitoba is one of only a few Canadian provinces that fund independent schools such as Gray Academy, with the school receiving approximately 50% of comparable public school funding per student. Binder adds that the school offers a robust Bursary Assistance program, strongly supported by funding from the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s Combined Jewish Appeal. “Over 60% of our families receive some level of bursary support,” she reports. “We work with every family to ensure that no child is ever turned away because of inability to cover the full parental contribution.”
Just weeks into the new school year, Gray Academy is already looking ahead to enrolment for next September.
For more information about what Gray Academy has to offer and application dates, phone 204 477-7425 or email admissions@grayacademy.ca.
Local News
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper headlines B’nai Brith Canada’s 150th anniversary celebration
By MYRON LOVE There have been very few – if any – Western leaders who have been more supportive of Israel and the Jewish people than Stephen Harper. On Wednesday, September 10, Canada’s former prime minister (2006-16) was the guest of honour at B’nai Brith Winnipeg’s gala evening in celebration of B’nai Brith’s 150th anniversary.
In a fireside chat with media personality Ben Mulroney, Harper demonstrated that he continues to maintain his moral clarity.
Two hundred B’nai Brith supporters showed up at the Fort Garry Hotel to celebrate the longevity of Canada’s oldest human rights organization. The discussion between Harper and Mulroney was preceded by about 90 minutes of fine dining and shmoozing. The formal program began with Dr. Ruth Ashrafi, B’nai Birth Canada’s Winnipeg Regional Director, reciting a prayer for the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
Ashrafi introduced B’nai Brith Canada COO Judy Foldes and Jay Harris, Chair of B’nai Brith Canada’s Board, – who were both in town for the event – along with Simon Wolle, BBC’s new CEO, who is replacing the late and much appreciated Michael Mostyn.
Just before Harper and Mulroney began their conversation, Mulroney spoke with Jay Harris via video about the organization’s storied history and ongoing wrap-around services. Mulroney highlighted B’nai Brith’s long record of fighting antisemitism and advocating for human rights and its many programs aimed at bringing people together and helping the needy – not only in the Jewish community but in the broader community as well.
Stephen Harper congratulated B’nai Brith on its 150th anniversary and praised the organization for its unflinching efforts in pushing back against antisemitism and fighting for human rights.
“I really grieve for the Jewish people” he continued. “I understand how tough it is out there right now. When I took strong stands in support of Israel as prime minister, I always believed that the great majority of Canadians supported my positions. They were just quiet about it. While the loudest voices get all the attention, I still believe that most Canadians still quietly support Israel and understand that not only is Israel a democratic sates and an ally, but also that the Jewish people in Canada have made such a disproportionate contribution to our business life, charitable life, and public service. So just know that you are widely appreciated across the country.”
Following some discussion on the assassination of young American conservative leader Charlie Kirk a couple of weeks ago, the dangerous state of public discourse in the United States and concomitant worsening situation in that regard in Canada as well, Harper commented that “I just hope that people on both sides of the border will begin to pull back and can engage in vigorous arguments without ostracization, cancellation and assassination,” he said.
In response to a question from Mulroney about what is driving antisemitism in Canada, Harper suggested that “we have allowed certain institutions to make antisemitism – framed a certain way – socially and politically acceptable. After the Second World War,” he noted, “we, as a society, agreed that what we considered far right ideology– the idea that dividing people into categories – with some groups considered superior to others – and the people in inferior groups could be discriminated against, marginalized and, ultimately, killed – was socially and politically unacceptable – beyond the pale.
“But we have permitted in our universities and media the idea to germinate far left ideology, but that is the mirror image of the far right – that people can be divided into oppressors and oppressed – and that the oppressors can be ostracized, marginalized and killed. This is rampant in academic institutions – institutions that we overwhelmingly fund with public money – given on the basis that they represent free and democratic values such as individual, human dignity and small l liberal values. This should not be acceptable”
“This is not just about the Jews,” he added. “It is an entire intellectual framework and people who propagate it should be defunded and removed from their posts. My father taught me that antisemitism, no matter from the left or the right, is the first sign of a political movement and a society going to a dangerous extreme,” Harper said.
Mulroney observed that anti-Israel, antisemitic groups can never be propitiated. (Ed. note: I had to look up the meaning of “propitiated.” Here’s what I found:
Mulroney continued: “We have the most pro-Palestinian government in our history, yet we still see protests popping up in front of government ministers’ homes.”
In response to Mulroney’s questions, Harper pointed out the long-standing and close friendship between Canada and Israel (at least up until this current federal government). “There should be no question that Israel has the right to exist,” he stated, “and every country should be fighting terrorism.”
In response to a question about why Canada should support Israel, Harper noted that it is not about geopolitics or religion, it is a matter of basic common sense. “Israel and Canada are both free and democratic countries,” he pointed out. “The friends of Israel are friends of Canada. The enemies of Israel are enemies of Canada – who are also intent on destroying Canada. If the leaders of a country don’t get that, I don’t know what they understand about international affairs. To me, it is distressing that you have to explain this to so many world leaders.”
Mulroney asked Harper about the worldwide condemnation of Israel for “escalating the conflict by taking out Hamas leaders in Qatar.
“This not escalation,” Harper said. “This is de-escalation. By taking out Hezbollah, Israel has made Lebanon a better place. And the subsequent fall of Assad in Syria has made Syria a better place – although the jury is still out on that. The Israeli and American bombing of Iran has made the world a safer place.
“When I was prime minster, I was in virtually daily battles with the people in Canada’s Foreign Affairs department who wanted to oppose Israel,” he recalled. “It was just so ingrained. I saw it in a lot of other Western foreign affairs departments.”
One of Israel’s challenges, Harper pointed out, is that while there are 50 Muslim states (not all of them hostile to Israel ) in the world and 25 Arab states, there is only one Jewish state. He recalled that, “Too often, diplomats see their responsibility not in representing the interests of their home countries but rather, representing the global community.
“With so many more Muslim and Arab states, he observed, “it is all too easy to go along with the consensus to get along.”
Harper noted that in many of his meetings with foreign leaders, they privately agreed with him – but they didn’t want to fight the media and the academic establishment, so they just went along. “That is not leadership,” he said. “And leaders who don’t support Israel are jeopardizing their own countries’ future.”
Turning to the political situation in Canada, Harper was strongly critical of the Trudeau government which, he said, left Canada in a really bad place. He is hopeful that Mark Carney, our current prime minister, will adopt many of the policies that Conservative Leader Pierre Polievre is proposing, and make the necessary changes. If not, he noted, there will be a change in government.
In closing, Ruth Ashrafi thanked Earl and Cheryl Barish, the honorary gala co-chairs, noting how much their generosity and leadership has enriched both our Jewish and the wider community at large.