The mayor of Montreal called her commissioner for the fight against racism to order on Wednesday, the day after calls for her resignation from the Jewish community.
In recent weeks, Bochra Manaï reportedly shared pro-Palestinian posts on Instagram from a group that celebrated Hamas’ attacks against Israel. She also drew a parallel between the Israeli intervention in Gaza and the Rwandan genocide.
“Municipal officials and commissioners have a duty of confidentiality and we expect it to be respected. This message was delivered to Ms. Manaï,” indicated Mayor Plante’s office via press secretary Catherine Cadotte.
Madame Manaï will meet all the communities affected by the conflict. There is clearly a bond of trust to be strengthened.
The office of Mayor Valérie Plante
On Tuesday, the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations (CIJA) called for the outright departure of M.me Manai.
“The silence and inaction of the anti-racist commissioner after a historic week of anti-Semitic terrorism are shocking,” lamented Eta Yudin, vice-president of the organization. “Mr’s responseme Manai with Molotov cocktails hitting Jewish institutions: silence. His response to the bullets that hit Jewish schools: silence again. »
Mme Manaï responded via an open letter in which she condemned the Islamophobic and anti-Semitic violence of recent weeks. She also explains that she personally took part in a demonstration supporting a ceasefire.
“I remind you, once again, that my role at the City of Montreal, as a civil servant, concerns internal change and that I do not have a role of public representation,” she argued. “I was appointed to work with the entire municipal apparatus to accelerate the transformation for an administration free of racism and systemic discrimination. This mission lives within me, and I devote all my efforts and energies to it. »
Bochra Manaï was appointed commissioner for the fight against racism and systemic discrimination by the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, in 2021. Her appointment had been contested, because two years earlier, she had been one of the faces of the contestation of Law on State Secularism. She notably stated that “Quebec has become a reference for extremist supremacists”.