Apparently, Quebec’s pension fund sees a problem with maintaining investments in Stephen Bronfman’s operations in Israel but the David Suzuki Foundation is fine with having a member of Canada’s most influential Zionist family on its board.
In an article about the Caisse de dépôt rethinking its investments, Le Journal de Montreal recently reported that Stephen Bronfman’s Israeli fund was invested in nine Israeli companies, including a firm (D-Fend Solutions) selling technology to counter drones. Claridge also holds a stake in Cyberbit, which was established by notorious Israeli arms giant Elbit Systems and has been accused of spying on Ethiopian dissidents. According to its website, “Claridge has invested more than $800M in Israel over the last 20 years and is committed to supporting Israel’s fast-growing, talent rich economy. This partnership lays a foundation for a new generation of Bronfman family investing in Israel.”
A vice chair of the David Suzuki Foundation board, Stephen Bronfman isn’t simply a capitalist trying to make a buck in a genocidal apartheid state. He’s a Jewish supremacist activist. In a 2013 Globe and Mail article about leading Justin Trudeau’s fundraising, Bronfman boasted about bringing the soon to be Liberal leader to Israel as part of an effort to ‘Zionise’ the future prime minister’s thinking and last year he labelled Donald Trump “very good for the Jewish people”.
Exposed in the Paradise Papers for tax avoidance through a Cayman Islands trust, Bronfman has funded Birthright and other Zionist ‘charity’ initiatives such as the Jewish National Fund and Canadian Zionist Cultural Association. Both organizations have had their charitable status revoked for assisting the Israeli military, illegal West Bank colonies and poor financial practices.
An award that Bronfman funds celebrates his arch Zionist, bootlegging grandfather. When Stephen’s father, Charles, received the Samuel Bronfman Medal in 2019 the Israeli consul-general, deputy consul general and Irwin Cotler were on hand.
Ninety five years old, Charles Bronfman is also an unabashed Jewish supremacist activist. Charles and his wife Andrea were among the first Canadians to be granted honorary Israeli citizenship in 2002.
Through a foundation mandated to promote the “unity of the Jewish people whose soul is in Jerusalem”, Charles has given hundreds of millions of dollars to Zionist projects. In 1997 he funded the creation of Canada’s first Chair in Israeli Studies at the University of Toronto and has supported the Libi Fund — “The Fund for Strengthening Israel’s Defense.”He founded Birthright, which has provided free 10-day trips to Israel to nearly 1 million young Jews. Organized in partnership with the Israeli government, Birthright is designed to strengthen Jewish identity and connection to Israel.
Worth about 2.5 billion dollars, Charles has major business ties in Israel. His firm Koor Industries, which held a major stake in Senstar Magal Security Systems, was contracted by Israel’s Defence Ministry to install security and surveillance equipment along the apartheid wall. During the 1999 Israeli election Charles and Koor CEO Jonathan Kolber were implicated in illegal election campaign financing, allegedly channeling funds through a non-profit to assist Ehud Barak’s campaign.
Through his ties to Barak, the Mega Group and Robert Maxwell, Charles was close to Jeffrey Epstein and Israeli intelligence. In 1991 Charles founded the Mega Group with Leslie Wexner. A secretive group of 20 to 50 wealthy Jewish donors, the group met twice yearly and was exposed in the 1998 Wall Street Journal article “Titans of Industry Join Forces to Work for Jewish Philanthropy”. The Mega Group inspired several Zionist initiatives such as Birthright, Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education and the renewal of Hillel International.
The final known meeting of the Mega Group reportedly took place at Edgar Bronfman’s Manhattan mansion. Uncle to Stephen, Edgar headed the World Jewish Congress from 1979 to 2007.
Jeffrey Epstein was one of three trustees of the Wexner Foundation for over a decade and its namesake, Leslie Wexner, was the main source of Epstein’s wealth. Epstein had power of attorney for a significant portion of Wexner’s fortune and in May 1997 Epstein posed as a talent scout for Victoria’s Secret — owned by Wexner — to lure model Alicia Arden to his hotel room where he sexually assaulted her.
In 1989 Charles joined British press magnate Robert Maxwell, father of Epstein co-accused Ghislaine Maxwell, in a joint bid to buy The Jerusalem Post. Robert Maxwell is widely believed to have worked for Mossad.
Stephen’s grandfather, Samuel Bronfman, was president of the Canadian Jewish Congress between 1939 and 1962 and served as honorary president of the Zionist Organization of Canada. After Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula in 1967, Samuel initiated a $25 million fundraising campaign for Israel. In 1960 Samuel and other leading Jewish capitalists established the Canada-Israel Development Corporation. With an initial $5 million outlay its goal was to “attract investment from the Canadian public… for industry in Israel basic to Israel’s economy.”
Samuel promoted the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, helping arm Zionist paramilitaries prior to Israel’s founding. In its 1971 obituary the New York Times reported that Samuel made “a secret purchase of Canadian weapons for troops of the Haganah.” In his biography Edgar Bronfman reports, “Father [Samuel], too, was a Zionist, and had been very active in the securing of arms for the Israelis during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948: I overheard conversations of his with various Canadian government officials persuading them to sell them arms.” Alex Skelton, a functionary at Trade and Commerce and son of former Deputy Minister of External Affairs O. D. Skelton, arranged export permits to Palestine for numerous militarily useful items. Skelton came up with the idea of sending military airplanes to a non-existent “Tel Aviv Spring Fair” — created to justify exporting single engine Harvard trainer monoplanes that were easily convertible to military uses.
In The Bronfman Dynasty: The Rothschilds of the New World, Peter Newman writes that Samuel “personally underwrote life insurance policies for Canadian pilots recruited to help Israel fight its 1948 war of independence.” Some claim Canada’s top World War II fighter ace, Buzz Beurling, who died on route to Israel, was paid by Samuel.
A scion of Canada’s most important anti-Palestinian family is vice chair of the board of the David Suzuki Foundation. Is that appropriate?
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