Howard Liebman already thriving as Mayor Coderre's special advisor on international relations

Could Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre  have made a better choice for his special advisor on international relations than Howard Liebman?  Howard spent a decade as the chief of staff to Mount Royal Liberal Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler. At one point Cotler served as the country’s Minister of Justice and one of his cabinet colleagues was Coderre.

With Cotler preparing to retire once the October 19 election is called, Liebman decided to look for a new challenge. He has most definitely found one at Montreal City Hall and his years working with Cotler turned out to be excellent training.

“Mayor Coderre is an extremely engaged, dynamic, ever-present leader with the gift of vision and the political experience to deliver results,” Liebman says. “ The mayor previously served as federal MP for Bourassa for 16 years. He served as Minister of Sport  and brought the World Anti Doping Agency to Montreal and as Minister of  Immigration he placed Hamas and Hezbollah on Canada's terror lists.”

Liebman (left) shows B'nai Brith France President Serge Dahan and Yonathan Arfi, vice-president of the CRIF (Council of French Jewish Institution) a little bit of Montreal.  

As a special advisor, responsible primarily for international relations and part of the mayor's circle, Liebman’s first weeks  on the job have been jammed packed. Among his work - all duly posted to social media notably the @HowardLiebman Twitter Feed - has been the annual meeting of Metropolis in Buenos Aires, the International Mayors Summit on Living Together (where Montreal hosted 23 mayors from every corner of the planet), the Mayor's Montreal - Paris international panel on the role of cities in combatting antisemitism, and dozens of meetings with visiting mayors, consuls, ambassadors, governors, senators, ministers, parliamentarians, former prime ministers, the mayor's annual gathering of the Consular Corps, and Her Excellency Michaelle Jean's first official visit to City Hall in her new capacity as Secretary General of the Francophonie.

Mayor Coderre has announced plans in the fall for a Mission to China, including an economic delegation, a leading role among international mayors at the United Nations environment summit COP21 in Paris in December, and looking further afield, a possible mission to Israel in 2016. 

The brutal attacks on Charlie Hebdo and then on the kosher market in France last February compelled  Mayor Coderre to take action. The round table on anti-Semitism prompted him to state: “Anti-Semitism exists [and] we have to denounce it, we have to talk against it,” he said.Montreal has not been spared – there have been attacks and troubling hate crimes perpetrated here.

Serge Dahan, the president of B'nai Brith France, says we can and should learn from one another, sooner rather than later. “In France, we've gone from graffiti to murder,” he said.

The House of Commons in Ottawa recently voted unanimously in favour of a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, and it specifically mentioned the role that municipalities play in curbing the problem.

“They have the most direct with people, they're engaged in the whole civil society,” said Cotler.

The mayor suggested a new hate crimes division could be created within Montreal’s police department and emphasized better integration of newcomers and stemming the tide of hate speech on social media.

Smadar Brandes, members of council and dignitaries present the translated Montreal Charter to Mayor Denis Coderre.

Last week  Coderre unveiled a Hebrew translation of the Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities. The translator was Smadar Brandes, whose mom Pnina is a longtime teacher at JPPS-Bialik. Smadar’s proud husband is Lev Berner, a teacher at Vincent Massey Collegiate in Rosemount.

Howard Liebman is truly making his mark! 

How the Cotler Camp Competed with Zajdel Campaign Launch

The federal riding of Mount Royal has been a Liberal stronghold for 70 years. Incumbent Irwin Cotler (below) has won five successive elections in 10 years, including his first effort in 1999 with an incredible 92 percent of the vote. The last time voters here witnessed a real close race was in 1984 when Sheila Finestone, who had won the right to succeed former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau as the Liberal candidate, edged out Tory challenger Sharon Wolfe by just over 4,000 votes (22,716 to 18,707).

Cotler's margin of victory has shrunk with each election, gaining 55.64 percent of the vote in 2008 versus low profile Tory Rafael Tzoubari. In light of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's strong suppport for Israel, the Tories feel they have a chance to seriously challenge Cotler. Their emissaries succeeded in luring former Montreal City Councillor Saulie Zajdel (above) out of retirement to carry the Tory banner

It has been an interesting campaign thus far, with a number of debates on the schedule. The Liberals are lucky to have someone with Cotler's reputation. He was well known as an international human rights expert before he sought public office and when the Liberals were in power he rose to become Minister of Justice. At the age of 71 he shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, I am quite amazed with the way in which he has blazed the campaign trail. He also has an exceptionally politically savvy chief of staff in Howard Liebman.

Take Wednesday night for example. Zajdel had his official campaign launch rally planned for 5 p.m. at the Gelber Conference Centre, the same locale where Cotler kick started his campaign a few days earlier. That very morning a notice to community leaders and media went out from Liebman, inviting them to a hastily called meeting with Cotler and former Prime Minister Paul Martin.

More than 200 people attended the Zajdel affair, including Tory MP Maxime Bernier, Senator Leo Housakos and a number of other candidates.

Mount Royal also has prominent Bialik High School teacher Jeff Itcush running for the NDP.

Cotler is clearly not taking Zajdel for granted. It all makes for an interesting race. Long gone are the days when folks would stay home, automatically assuming a Liberal cakewalk.