David Suzuki’s foundation has received millions of dollars from a leading anti-Palestinian donor who is on his board. And soon the famed environmentalist will speak at a forum instigated by an explicitly racist organization, but a pro-Palestinian friend doesn’t want me to write about it.
On June 8 Suzuki is scheduled to speak at a Climate Solutions Prize (CSP) event in Montreal. As I detailed a week ago, CSP was instigated by the racist Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada with support from the Israeli government. Suzuki’s upcoming talk will be moderated by a previous director of JNF Montreal.
Two decades ago, CSP co-founder, Jeff Hart, helped launch the Suzuki Foundation in Quebec. With significant ties to the JNF, Hart was co-chair of the David Suzuki Foundation-Quebec for nine years. When Hart was the 2020 JNF Montreal Gala honouree the publicity noted that “he helped launch the David Suzuki Foundation’s Quebec operations.” The Jeff & Geraldine Hart Family Foundation was a sponsor of last year’s JNF Montreal gala and Hart posted, “So honoured to have been able to hook out organize the first JNF Green Mission to Israel, taking about 30 Canadian green tech, investors and entrepreneurs.”
As Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East explain, “the Jewish National Fund (JNF) is an organization which enables Israel’s ongoing colonization of Palestine and helps greenwash Israeli crimes.” As part of its ‘green’ colonialism, JNF plants (non-indigenous) trees on lands taken from Palestinians and builds parks, most infamously Canada Park, on the ruins of ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages.
Hart is currently overseeing the annual fundraising drive for Montreal’s most important genocidal Jewish supremacist organization (Federation CJA). Stephen Bronfman was a past chair of Federation CJA’s fundraising appeal. Bronfman has been on the board of the Suzuki Foundation for 30 years. A major donor to the odious Birthright project, which his father established, Bronfman is currently Vice Chair, Quebec, of the Suzuki Foundation.
Since 2000 the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation has donated over $6 million to the Suzuki Foundation. The Suzuki Foundation has also received significant funding from the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal, which includes Bronfman as director. Three other charities in which Bronfman is a board member have donated over $80,000 to the Suzuki Foundation.
Other charities supporting the Israeli military, such as the Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman Foundation, have also donated to the Suzuki Foundation.
It’s hard to imagine funding and other ties to Zionist donors haven’t impacted Suzuki’s position on Palestine. A Google search of “David Suzuki Gaza genocide” came back with this AI Overview: “David Suzuki has not personally made direct statements accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza, though his longtime associate and environmentalists within his network have spoken out.”
In response to my article about Suzuki speaking at a JNF instigated initiative and his ties to Bronfman, a friend sent me a critical email. He agreed that Suzuki shouldn’t speak at the CSP event but wrote:
“Suzuki is an ally. He openly supported and endorsed Avi Lewis, an anti-Zionist Jew who has strongly and publicly opposed the Gaza genocide. And as you noted in 2021 he took a good position opposing the anti-Palestinian green leader, also he supported the Draw the Line Movement in 2025, which was openly pro-Palestinian.
“You have essentially put an important ally in the camp of the enemy. His positions as noted above are not consistent with kow-towing to the Zionist lobby. Yet you have openly speculated that he is being bought off by this lobby.
“Why speculate? Why not speak to him, present the evidence about the CSP and even if he doesn’t agree at the end, we have to figure out a way of expressing disappointment and disagreement (publicly) without putting important allies in the trash bin.”
Instead of emailing me, why didn’t he simply email Suzuki? Leaving that aside, it’s a strawman argument. As I explained, “I haven’t put anyone in a ‘trash bin’ or made him an ‘enemy’. I have written an article praising someone and one criticizing him. I would be happy to do an event with Suzuki, include his name on a public letter, co-sign an op-ed with him, speak to him at a demo, etc.”
Criticizing me for exposing Suzuki’s Zionist ties reinforces a stark double standard. It’s not those funded by Jewish supremacist billionaires who are being “trashed” or “canceled” but those challenging genocide. As someone who has been “canceled” by many left individuals or organizations who’d happily promote Suzuki despite his ties to Stephen Bronfman, the anti-Palestinian double standard is stunning. Many will ‘cancel’ leftists for employing ‘tropes’ but give a pass to someone speaking at an initiative put on by the explicitly racist Jewish National Fund!
It’s exasperating to see leftist pro-Palestinians reinforce flagrant double standards. Obviously, power relations infuse everyone’s consciousness, but it should be self-evident that I am incapable of putting a famed billionaire backed media personality into the “trash bin”. I’m more likely to be further “trashed” for exposing the luminary’s Zionist ties.
Irrespective of the strategy by which one prefers to pressure David Suzuki, we should all agree it’s unacceptable he’s speaking at a forum instigated by the explicitly racist Jewish National Fund.
Please email the Suzuki Foundation to raise the matter.
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