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April 14, 2006
NPA offers mea culpa
Kerfuffle after AGM conflicts with seder.
PAT JOHNSON
Representatives of Vancouver's civic governing party, the Non-Partisan
Association (NPA), were in damage control mode last week after scheduling
their annual general meeting to conflict with the first seder of
Passover.
The scheduling of the party's internal elections means few, if any,
of the NPA's Jewish members will be at the April 12 meeting, where
new officers will be elected.
Matthew Taylor, president of the board of the NPA, apologized for
the oversight.
"We wanted to convey our sincere apologies," he said in
an interview with the Independent. "The fact of the matter
is it's a simple oversight. We didn't realize it was going to be
the first day of, obviously, a very significant Jewish holiday.
There was no intention to single anybody out. It was simply a question
of not having checked the calendar properly for religious holidays."
He attempted to reassure Jewish supporters and voters.
"There is no intention whatsoever to send any message to the
Jewish community," he asserted, "other than we consider
ourselves honored to have members of the Jewish community who are
members of the NPA and certainly do have no intention to send any
negative message whatsoever."
His apology was echoed by Colin Metcalfe, a member of the NPA's
board who was the manager of Sam Sullivan's successful mayoral campaign
last November.
"On behalf of the board of the NPA," Metcalfe said, "I
want to apologize to the Jewish community for being a part of the
decision mea culpa. We screwed up."
Metcalfe insisted the timing was an oversight and did not represent
anything sinister, such as an attempt to keep some of the mayor's
supporters away from the meeting.
"I'm on the board of the NPA and the discussion that took place
around the dates were simply based on availability. I am convinced
that, while we should have looked at this a little more closely,
it was done because of the date that the facility was available,"
said Metcalfe.
"We wouldn't have an AGM with the NPA on Christmas Eve,"
he added, by comparison. "It just wouldn't be done."
Last year, the NPA held a fund-raiser on Kol Nidre.
When the coincidence of the meeting with Passover was pointed out
to party brass, Metcalfe said, "We were, like 'Oh, we've made
a mistake here.' "
Marty Zlotnick, a longtime NPA activist who was elected to the parks
board last November, dismissed the Independent's inquiries, saying
he would not be at the meeting because he will be out of town.
"I really don't have a comment on the matter. It's just unfortunate
that the night was set that way," he said. "I don't have
a comment."
Bernie Simpson, a political activist and former MLA who has been
a prominent supporter of Sullivan, contended that the incident is
a sign that Sullivan needs to get a stronger hold on his party.
"I have no doubt that if Sam Sullivan and his immediate supporters
were in control of the executive of NPA, the fund-raiser that was
held on Yom Kippur and the annual general meeting that is being
held on the first seder would not be taking place," said Simpson.
"I think what this reflects is that he has not got the type
of influence that he should have or would like to have of the NPA
board."
Simpson said the mayor expressed to him his disappointment over
the timing.
"I have discussed this with him and his campaign manager and
they are in complete agreement that it's totally inappropriate to
have these events on the most religious of the Jewish holidays,"
said Simpson.
Mark Weintraub, who is chair of Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific
Region, asked political leaders and party organizers to be mindful
that the scheduling of certain events could preclude participation
by a religious community.
"There really needs to be resolve amongst all of us, including
individual members of political parties to ensure that there will
be maximum inclusiveness in our political processes," Weintraub
said. "This has occurred on Passover, a festival that has been
heralded as an inspiration for political freedom and political democracy,
so it certainly underscores the point in an ironic manner that we
all have to redouble our efforts to ensure inclusiveness in our
very diverse city."
Howard Jampolsky, who served 17 years on the board of the NPA, said
the mix-up is something that didn't happen when he was on the board.
"When I was on the board, it was always one of the things that
I would do when we were setting a date for some kind of an
event to make sure that it didn't fall on a Jewish holiday
and consequently for 17 years they didn't have an event on a Jewish
holiday," Jampolsky said. "But I'm not on the board anymore
and so the watchdog for that particular issue is gone. But I think
that they will be more careful in the future about these things.
I think they'll use the multifaith calendar I promised to get them."
While Jampolsky acknowledged that interest in this year's general
meeting is significant, with an aggressive race for the board, it
is not usually thus.
"It's an annual general meeting," said Jampolsky. "From
my experience in the NPA, which is vast, the annual general meetings
are lucky to even have a quorum."
Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.
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