Another one-sided propaganda trip for our public officials. Sheldon Kirshner(Canadian Jewish News); "TORONTO - The presidents of six Canadian universities visited Israel recently. Their one-week tour took place last month and culminated in a Canada Day reception at the Canadian ambassador’s residence in Herzliya, a Tel Aviv suburb. It was the fourth mission of its kind since 1993. The mission was co-hosted by two Canadian academics, University of Toronto law professor Ed Morgan and York University historian Irving Abella, both of whom have led previous missions. Participating on the trip were David Johnston, Sheldon Levy, Luc Vinet, Peter MacKinnon, Allan Rock and William Barker, the respective presidents of the University of Waterloo, Ryerson University, Université de Montréal, the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Ottawa and University of King’s College in Halifax. The president of McGill University, Heather Monroe-Blum, joined them for one day. “The purpose of the trip was to increase the familiarity of Canadian academics with the breadth and depth of the Israeli university scene, with a view to fostering faculty and student exchanges, graduate student fellowship opportunities, joint research projects and collaborative teaching and scholarships,” explained Morgan, a former national president of Canadian Jewish Congress. Abella, who is also a former CJC national president, said the objective was three-fold: to introduce the Canadians to their Israeli counterparts, to allow them to see first hand the quality of education and research at Israeli universities, and to encourage the creation of joint research and exchange programs. The visitors met the presidents and senior administrators of Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, the Weizmann Institute, the Technion and the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. In addition, they conferred with officials of Al-Quds, a Palestinian university in eastern Jerusalem. Abella hoped that the presidents would be able to visit Palestinian universities in the West Bank, but the idea was scotched when the Canadian Embassy expressed concerns about their safety." full text; http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15083&Itemid=101 Note: Ex-President Carter, French President Sarkozy, British PM Brown and Barrack Obama have all recently visited the West Bank..., but it it too dangerous for our intrepid university presidents?
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