Ben Carr (L) and Marty Morantz (C) are current Jewish members of parliament in Winnipeg. For fairness, both MPs were asked to respond to the same set of topics: the recent protests at the Rady JCC, the rise in antisemitism across Canada, the Kosher butchery ban, and support for Israel. How their answers differ should be informative to prospective voters.

Ben Carr has been the representative for Winnipeg South Centre since assuming office on June 19th, 2023. A by-election for the seat was called following the death of his father, Jim Carr who served the same constituency from 2015 – 2022. Before his career in politics, Mr. Carr was a teacher at Robert H. Smith High School and then he taught at Kelvin High School where he also volunteered as a football coach. He went on to serve as principal of Maples High School and as divisional principal for Seven Oaks School Division. He holds Bachelor of Arts degrees from both the University of Winnipeg and Carleton University.

Marty Morantz has been the Member of Parliament for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley since Oct. 21st 2019, winning the seat during the 2019 Canadian federal election. Before serving as an MP Mr. Morantz was the City Councillor for Charleswood-Tuxedo-Whyte Ridge from 2014 – 2018. Prior to his career in politics, Mr. Morantz was a lawyer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Manitoba and obtained a law degree from Osgoode Hall at York University.

Protests at RadyJCC:

The candidates began by commenting on the pro-Palestine protests that occurred outside the Rady JCC on April 1st.

Mr. Carr promoted a proactive solution, ‘bubble legislation,’ which would prohibit public protests outside of religious centres. He said, “I believe that bubble legislation is an important policy that can help us ensure that all identifiable religious groups, whether that be Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Christian, or any other are protected from protests outside of religiously affiliated facilities, whether or not one agrees or disagrees with the reasons for those protests, I do not believe that in particular, innocent children from any religious group should have to have their schools, daycares or community centres be the focal point of political protests.”

Mr. Morantz similarly denounced the protests’ choice of community centre and school, suggesting government legislative buildings were a more appropriate place to protest. “When people wanna protest there are better places to do it, where laws are actually made, like the legislature or city hall, but you know, when you’ve got children coming to school, going to school at programs, at a place like the asper campus JCC, it’s, very, very upsetting to the families, to the kids. It’s just, disgusting is the word that I would use for it, and shame on those people who did it.”

Looking for solutions, Mr. Morantz split his focus municipally and federally.

At the municipal level he also supported ‘bubble zone’ legislation, adding that this legislation was better handled locally because, “municipalities understand local infrastructure and the different nuances, and which buildings might be more appropriate.”

From a federal level, Mr. Morantz suggested we should be exploring bringing back in our criminal code laws that make it illegal to glorify terrorism. He noted that Canada had something similar under Prime Minister Harper, “The glorification of terrorism was actually a crime, and I think that’s something once the election is done and I’m back in Ottawa that I will certainly be talking to my caucus members about and trying to advocate for.”

Antisemitism:

Since the October 7th terrorist attacks, there has been a measurable increase in antisemitism across the world and here in Canada. According to government statistics in 2023, Canada had roughly 900 police-reported hate crimes, which is a 71% increase year on year, and 70% of all religious-based hate crimes are against Jews. Both candidates were asked to address the rise in antisemitism and suggest solutions.

Mr. Carr began by confirming the “irrefutable evidence that has for many years pointed to an intensification of antisemitism in Canada and around the world. Canada has seen a worrisome and unacceptable rise in antisemitism that has become more blatant and more public-facing in nature.” He presented several solutions. “There are multiple ways that governments of all levels can support the fight against antisemitism.”

Increasing funding for the security infrastructure program.
Helping to support education about antisemitism.
Working alongside law enforcement across the country to ensure that hateful activity and hate crimes are dealt with.

Mr. Morantz made clear we must delineate between allowing lawful protest while also handling bad actors. “Not all protests are illegal and we do need to be careful about protecting people who are legitimately peacefully protesting.” For Mr. Morantz what “crosses the line” is demonstrations devolving into incitement to hatred, and denounced the proliferation of terrorist paraphernalia. He emphasised that the current government was failing to properly manage these demonstrations, and promised empowering law enforcement and the courts if the Conservatives were to win this election. “One of the things we need to do is have a careful look at the laws in our criminal code that give the police and crown prosecutors the tools they need to properly prosecute these types of things… The reality is that the Liberals have been in power for 10 years. This has been going on since before October 7th.”

Kosher Butchery Ban:

The practice of kosher butchering has come under attack as religious customs clash with modern views on animal welfare. In 2018, Trudeau’s Liberal government introduced new food safety regulations into CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) requiring that animals must be stunned before they are killed, a practice that shechita prohibits. These rules were enforced in June 2023, leading to an over 50% drop in kosher meat production, devastating the industry. In response, numerous Jewish organizations filed a lawsuit in March 2024, arguing that the regulations violated Charter rights to religious freedom and equality. They have been momentarily successful, getting a Federal Court injunction to halt enforcement. This allows kosher slaughter to resume; however, it’s temporary, pending a final court decision. Both candidates explained their positions on the regulations.

Ben Carr appeared content with the current situation since this was not an issue he gets a lot of feedback about but he said, “I’m always listening to the needs of the community and understand that there are some concerns around this.”

Marty Morantz was more emphatic about Canada’s government changing course. “I’ll say this on the Kosher issue, a lot of these inflammatory policies affecting the Jewish community are completely unacceptable, and it’s something that under a Pollievre government, we would certainly reverse. We would make sure that the parts of our Jewish community observing the laws of Kashrut are able to get their products as easily as possible, and the Canadian government should not be taking steps to make that more difficult.”

Support for Israel:

Polls show that support for Israel in Canada has been steadily dropping. In particular, there is a substantial generational gap between younger and older Canadians on attitudes toward Israel, with the former being much less supportive than their elders. An Angus Reid poll in February 2024 showed a split Canadian opinion on the war in Gaza, stating that “half of Canadians (50%) believe Israel’s response has been ‘too heavy-handed.’ ” Both candidates gave their opinions on the ongoing conflict in Gaza, support for the state of Israel, and outlined what Canada’s role should be.

Mr. Carr’s immediate thought was of human suffering. “What I would say is the loss of innocent human life over the course of this conflict has been horrific and tragic.” He gave four clear objectives:

An immediate return to a ceasefire
The pursuit of a two-state solution.
The release of hostages.
A future in the Middle East for which Hamas has no role to play.

Regarding the relationship between Canada and Israel, Mr. Carr noted, “the bonds will always run deeper than the relationship we may have with the particular government of the moment.” In terms of the conflict in Gaza, he suggested, “We have to be mindful of the fact that Israel has a right to defend itself. But the way that Israel defends itself must always be done with great care for innocent life. The future for Peace in the Middle East is dependent upon the ability for leaders around the world to come together immediately and work towards ensuring that conflicts such as the one we have been seeing over the course of the past year and a half do not occur again.”

In March 2023, Mr. Carr was one of three Liberal MPs who voted against an arms embargo on Israel. However, he stressed the need to only provide defensive armaments. “Canada’s role in helping to bring about peace in the region must include diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and the support for Israel to defend itself with technology related to the Iron Dome, in particular, is something that I think is responsible and appropriate.”

Mr. Morantz reiterated his commitment to fight for the Jewish community and pointed to his track record. “Since October 7th, I’ve been one of two Jewish Conservative MPs who are really on the front lines of fighting antisemitism in the House of Commons.”

Mr. Morantz was emphatic about targeting groups linked with terrorism such as the IRGC, and UNRWA. “There is ample evidence that antisemitic school materials have been used to foment unrest in schools for years, and that employees of UNRWA openly participated in the massacres that took place on October 7th.” In contrast, Mr. Morantz said the left were supporting these groups. “That motion for example, that the NDP called for the refunding of UNRWA and to ban arms exports to Israel.” He lamented, “You know, I still have trouble believing what has happened to the Liberal party of Canada when they are voting for motions like that when our friend and ally Israel is at war.” He rhetorically asked, “What kind of friend or ally of Israel would ban arms export permits to Israel?” In his opinion, Canada should “Absolutely defund UNRWA. UNRWA has become an anti-Israel arm of the United Nations. Nevertheless, Mr. Morantz acknowledged the need to provide humanitarian aid. “But UNRWA is not the way to do it… if we were to form a government, we would defund UNRWA and look for other ways to help Palestinian people.”

Mr. Morantz also complained about the delayed action by the Liberals in taking on the IRGC. “We’ve been posing motions for years. They finally did it when they thought they were going to lose the 2024 Toronto-St. Paul by-election,” he claimed. Mr. Morant ended by saying that “the Liberal party of Canada is no longer a reliable partner of the Jewish community in Canada. Full stop. This is not the liberal party of Paul Martin and John Chrétien. The liberal party that many of its members are openly hostile to our friend Israel, and fan the flames of some of these protests that have resulted in the escalation of antisemitism in our communities.”