Shurman, the member from Thornhill, moved a resolution to condemn the now annual event on Canadian campuses known as Israeli Apartheid Week,

?I want to be clear about what it is I?m trying to do,? Shurman said. ?I want the name changed. It?s that simple. It?s just wrong.?

Shurman said he had no objection to people criticizing Israel, or debating the thorny issues of Palestinians and the occupied territories.

?My problem is the name,? he said. ?Israeli Apartheid Week is not dialogue, it?s a monologue. The name is hateful, it is odious and that?s not how things should be in my Ontario. It?s a term that frankly I?m sick of hearing. Get rid of this word apartheid.?

MPPs unite to condemn ?odious? Israeli Apartheid Week

?Resolutions in the Ontario Legislature send a message. They are about moral suasion,? said Shurman, adding ?it is close to hate speech? to liken democratic Israel to apartheid-era South Africa.

?I want the name changed, it?s just wrong,? he said, emphasizing that ?respectful? debate about the Middle East is much more constructive than slinging slurs.

?Israeli Apartheid Week is not a dialogue, it?s a monologue and it is an imposition of a view by the name itself?the name is hateful, it is odious,? he said, adding it is also offensive to the millions of black South Africans oppressed by a racist white regime until the early 1990s.

Published On Thu Feb 25 2010

Robert Benzie, Queen?s Park Bureau Chief

In a rare show of unanimity, Ontario MPPs of all political stripes have banded together to condemn ?Israeli Apartheid Week.?

Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill) tabled the motion Thursday to denounce the sixth annual provocative campus event that kicks off next week at universities and colleges in 35 cities around the world.

Call to post leaders' expenses comes back to haunt Liberals

By: Rob Ferguson, Toronto Star

..."It's politics," said Conservative MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill), calling the tactic "nonsense" from a government that promised up to $15 million for the Grace Health Centre on the eve of the Feb. 4 by-election in Toronto Centre

...Shurman said any request for the opposition parties to post their expenses should have come not at "the eleventh hour" but last fall with McGuinty's original announcement...

Regional News - February 18, 2010 10:26 AM

But $4.1 M funding comes eight months after $5.5 M cut

By Chris Traber

Mr. Shurman and his colleagues raised the issue in the legislature and lobbied behind the scenes. "This is just a stop gap," he said.

"That's all it is. This is a government that sees you drowning 30 feet off shore and throws you a 20-foot rope then says, see, we met you more than half way."...

Newest MPP arrives at Queen's Park after byelection win

By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, Queen's Park Bureau Chief

Last Updated: 16th February 2010, 11:10am

Tory MPP Peter Shurman said Ontario has a lot of work to do on its energy file before going cap in hand to the federal Conservatives.

Tory member criticizes `reverse Midas touch'

Published On Fri Feb 12 2010

February 11, 2010