[images and captions added by this website] CBC News Toronto, Wednesday, January 19, 2005   Quebec backtracks on full Jewish-school funding; Charest cites 'prejudice' By LES PERREAUX   Not really guilty Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced that his government will backtrack on funding for Jewish schools. [Pure coincidence that his party received massive secret Jewish donation on the day his Government made this decision.](CP PHOTO/Jacques Boissinot) QUEBEC (CP) - The Quebec government dropped a decision to cover the full cost of private Jewish schools Wednesday after a furious public response that Premier Jean Charest said sometimes slipped into demagogy and prejudice. "We want to help bring cultures together but our method was not accepted by Quebec people as we'd hoped," said Charest, who was flanked at a news conference by embattled Education Minister Pierre Reid. "There is always some who will be tempted by demagoguery and prejudice. I've heard some of that and I regret that." Charest dismissed suggestions that Quebecers' outrage largely centred on the fact the funding decision was made after Jewish community groups reportedly raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his Liberal party. "We don't do our accounting on an ethnic basis," Charest said. "There was no link between fundraising and that decision. There was not and will never be. There is not a political party that counts donations along ethnic lines." Last month's decision to fund 100 per cent of private Jewish schools in Quebec passed quietly until reports surfaced that the decision was taken without cabinet approval or discussion, days after Jewish groups raised $750,000 for the party. While many ordinary Quebecers and pundits were outraged at the apparent exchange of money for favourable funding, others wondered about the Jewish community's capacity to raise money and access power. "It has nothing to do with the prejudice some want to evoke," Charest said. Charest said his government will pursue other links with cultural groups to "allow us to move away from this prejudice that some people entertain about certain communities." Sylvain Abitbol, president of the Jewish philanthropy group Federation Combined Jewish Appeal, said he did not believe the debate descended into prejudice. "I participated in many debates and interviews, and I don't think any of the arguments were against the Jewish community or constituted an attack," Abitbol told a news conference in Montreal. "I am disappointed we were not able to advance this project, we had noble ambitions. We wanted to build bridges." The government devised the plan after the [Website: purely fortuitous] firebombing of a Jewish elementary school library last spring that was condemned around the world, Reid said earlier this week. One Montreal school board rejected the school-funding plan by voting Tuesday to end cultural-exchange contracts with five of the private Jewish schools. Parti Quebecois education critic Pauline Marois blasted Charest for blaming Quebecers for killing the plan that could have benefited 15 Jewish schools. "People in general showed no evidence of intolerance," Marois said. "On the contrary. They judged this issue on the face of it. This issue always came down to the question of public financing for private religious schools, not a problem of integration or intolerance."   Our dossier on the origins of anti-Semitism

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