Roland de Corneille
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Reverend Roland de Corneille (born May 19, 1927) is a Canadian Anglican priest, human rights activist and former politician.
Born in Switzerland, de Corneille moved to Canada and graduated from the University of Toronto's Trinty College in 1953 as an ordained Anglican deacon.
In 1960, de Corneille was the secretary of the Nathaneal Institute, an Anglican missionary institute dedicated to coverting Jews to Christianity. De Corneille initiated an interfaith dialogue between the Christian and Jewish communities that led to the institute transforming itself into "the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of the Anglican Church of Canada" with de Corneille as director. The Dialogue sought better understanding between the two faith groups rather than religious conversion. In 1966, his book, Christians and Jews; the Tragic Past and the Hopeful Future was published by Harper and Row.
He is credited as the first Canadian clergyman to urge the Christian community to re-evaluate its attitude towards Jews.
As a result of de Corneille's efforts, the Anglican Church re-evaluated its attitude towards the Jewish community and renounce proselytization in favour of understanding, dialogue and reconciliation.
The process initiated by de Corneille was eventually formalised through the creation of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. The Christian-Jewish dialogue program initiated by de Corneille ultimately spread to the United States and Europe and helped lead to a change of attitude within mainstream Christian churches, particularly towards anti-Semitism
De Corneille's activity earned him the respect of the Jewish community. In 1970 he was appointed executive director of the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada. In the 1979 federal election he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Eglinton—Lawrence.
In parliament, he was the founding chairman of the Canada-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group. From 1980 to 1981 he was national chairman of the National Committee for a Human Rights Charter which lobbied parliament for the creation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
He served for three terms in the House of Commons until he was challenged for the Liberal nomination by Joe Volpe and defeated in a bitter nomination meeting prior to the 1988 federal election.
