Toronto councillors have cut by four days the period people can display municipal candidates' signs out of consideration to the city's Jewish community.
Except at candidate's offices, the signs were not to be posted before Sept. 30. Jewish organizations, and at least one candidate for council, however, complained this would give candidates a disadvantage if they observed Jewish religious law, since Sept. 30 and three days following it this year are holidays in which Jews are told to "do no work."In a motion they brought Thursday to Toronto Council, Case Ootes and Mike Feldman said this religious observance may mean Jewish candidates are "unable to engage" in erecting or displaying campaign signs, so the date should be changed to Oct. 4 to put all contenders "on equal ground."The motion passed, 31-4, leaving candidates three weeks for signs on lawns, billboards and shop windows before the Oct. 25 voting day.Feldman, a longtime North York councillor who isn't seeking re-election, later said he wants a level playing field for candidates vying to replace him.In his ward, he added, "there are nine candidates who are Jewish, one who is not. I'm supporting the one who is not," Feldman said, referring to his former senior executive assistant, Nancy Oomen.Feldman said Len Rudner, regional director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, was the first to call him and say that starting the display period for signs on the festivals of Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, and then the Jewish Sabbath, gave non-Jewish candidates an "unfair advantage."Feldman had wanted to start the display period a day earlier, but a law setting election dates makes that impossible without the province's agreement.On Friday, James Pasternak, a candidate running in Feldman's York Centre ward, welcomed council's decision as part of "what fair elections are about".In an online posting before the vote, he thanked Feldman and Ootes "for responding to the issue. Mike Feldman, in particular, has been very supportive," said Pasternak, who raised the issue in a newspaper article this month.He too said he would have preferred a "wider window" for posting signs instead of a shorter one."For the general public, the date of affixing signs is not uppermost in their minds," Pasternak added, but having it on a date that is fair for all "is pretty crucial."Ootes, an East York councillor also stepping aside this year, said he didn't think the change is "a big inconvenience" to anyone.The city has a large Jewish population, whose religious days should be respected whenever possible, he said. Feldman said if the conflict had been with a Muslim or Christian holiday he would have acted the same way. "We're a multicultural city and we have to respect the rights of others," he said, pointing to the council chamber as a reminder members stop city business there during the Jewish Sabbath."We close here every Friday night at sundown." The moon-based Jewish calendar shifts the dates of its festivals, so the incoming council may have to examine the issue again in 2014.