Prominent Canadians speak out against the war on Gaza

Media conference:

Thursday, January 8, 2009
10:30 a.m. (ET)

Mayfair Room, Banquet floor
Intercontinental Toronto Yorkville Hotel
220 Bloor St. West (between Avenue Road & Bedford),
Toronto, Ontario, Canada


With the war on Gaza into its twelfth day, prominent Jewish Canadians and others will speak out against the bombing of the Palestinian population, the vast majority of whom are already refugees living in the most dire of circumstances. The media conference participants will speak about the humanitarian catastrophe under the bombs, the lack of action by the Canadian government, and will call for an immediate ceasefire and a lifting of the blockade of Gaza.

Judith Deutsch is President of Science for Peace, Member of the Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices, and was a participant in the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme/World Health Organization international conference, "Siege and Mental Health...Walls vs. Bridges," October 27-28, 2008 in Gaza City and Ramallah.

Ursula Franklin is a Pearson Medal of Peace recipient and a Companion of the Order of Canada, a research physicist and author renowned for her work on technology and human rights.

Anton Kuerti is a nationally and internationally acclaimed Canadian concert pianist and recording artist. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a human rights activist.

Michael Mandel is an author and professor of international law at Osgoode Hall Law School. He has taught at several of Italy's major universities and has been a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

David Orchard is a fourth generation farmer, author, and twice a leadership candidate for the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1998 and 2003). In 2008, he was a federal election candidate for the Liberal Party in Saskatchewan.

Judith Weisman is a Toronto psychotherapist, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, and a founding member of Not In Our Name, Jews for a Just Peace and the Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation (of Palestine).


For more information please contact Grant Orchard at tel 416-778-7027, cell 416-254-8480 or David Orchard at cell 306-961-7122.