A manager at Hamotzi restaurant in Jerusalem dusts off a wine bottle as she prepares for re-opening ahead of Israel entering its third phase of easing coronavirus measures, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Maya Alleruzzo
TORONTO – A finding that wine from the West Bank can be labelled as a product of Israel was not reasoned properly and should now be thrashed out again, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled.
As a result, the appellate court said the politically sensitive case, which at one point threatened to put Middle East politics on trial, should go back to the Complaints and Appeals Office of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The administrative decision maker must demonstrate that its interpretation of the relevant provisions is consistent with their text, context and purpose, Chief Justice Marc Noel said. Here this demonstration is totally lacking.
The case arose in 2017, when Dr. David Kattenburg, of Winnipeg, raised concerns that wines produced by Psagot and Shiloh Winery, located in the West Bank, were from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, not Israel itself. He argued the wines should not, under Canadian law, be branded as Product of Israel.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency initially sided with him. However, the agency reversed course after some Jewish groups protested and Global Affairs Canada said the West Bank could be considered Israeli territory under the Canada-Israel free trade agreement.
Logo for the CBC show The Current (Image: Facebook)
For almost seven months, Palestine solidarity activists in Canada have been engaged in a struggle to hold their national broadcaster, the CBC, to account. On August 18, 2020, CBC’s current affairs program “The Current” carried an interview with Joe Sacco where the host used the word Palestine. This was deleted in the later online version and CBC apologized for Sacco’s language the next day. Following multiple complaints from listeners, it was learnt that CBC’s official language guide promoted this kind of anti-Palestinian bias.
The issue then went to CBC’s Ombudsman who has finally released his review of the case. His lengthy report concluded “that while The Current did not violate journalistic standards, producers made a poor decision in issuing an apology. Even though the original program was at odds with CBC’s usual practice, it would have been better to leave it as is.”
Canada: wine distributor erases Palestine from label
A wine seller covered the word Palestine on the label with a version saying West Bank in Canada 11 January 2021 January 11, 2021 at 4:04 pm
The labelling of products originating on Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory has sparked further controversy in Canada after a government run wine seller was found distributing bottles of Palestinian-made wine after covering up the word Palestine on the label with a version saying West Bank .
An image of the bottle of Palestinian wine,
Nadim 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Reserve, was shared yesterday on social media comparing the original labelling and the doctored version. The wine is produced by Ramallah s Taybeh Winery, a family-owned business founded in 2013 by the Khoury brothers.