The Enemies Within

"I have been on public record disagreeing with the approach taken by the current administration of the Canadian Arab Federation."
"At the end of the day, it's government's prerogative to make decisions on what to fund and what not to fund."
"I know Jason Kenney has been attacking me in some of his statements. Well, he should be careful ... when I was the president [of the Canadian Arab Federation in 2004-05], and his fellow Conservatives were falling over each other to meet with us and get our attention."
Omar Alghabra, Liberal candidate, Mississauga Centre

"CAF [Canadian Arab Federation] appears to support organizations that Canada has declared to be terrorist organizations and which are arguably anti-Semitic."
Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn

"[The Federation has had a long track record] expressing hateful, anti-Semitic views, and glorifying terrorists."
"Given the upcoming federal election, Liberal and NDP candidates must answer whether they still believe that we should give millions of tax dollars to groups whose leadership promotes anti-Semitism, and who express support for banned terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah."
"[Mr. Alghabra in 2009] criticized my decision to defund CAF."
Minister of National Defence and Minister of Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney

In 2009, when he was Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, the decision was made by Jason Kenney to stop annual funding of $1-million to the Canadian Arab Federation in exchange for its services in teaching English to new immigrants. Four years earlier the Canadian Arab Federation was led by Omar Alghabra, who later became an elected Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party of Canada.

All the major political parties make an effort to draw the attention of voting blocs, and ethnic groups often represent voting blocs. Mr. Kenney was particularly successful in ingratiating himself with various ethnic groups; he appears to have an affinity and empathy for various ethnic groups, and his interest in them is often reciprocated; a talent that has stood the Conservative Party well in courting the ethnic vote.

It would have been no different for Canadian Arab groups. Until it became evident that their agenda included sympathies inimical to the pluralist nature of the Canadian population, one that was built on immigration and has welcomed people from all over the world. The Canadian Arab Federation has imported an Arab/Muslim antipathy toward Jews and Israel into Canada, and it has lionized Islamist terrorist groups recognized as such by Canadian law.

Little wonder that the infiltration into Canada of concepts of violence and racial discrimination has caused, on full realization of the situation, the federal government to cut back its support of a group that has established its rationale along lines inimical to good citizenship and totally unreflective of Canadian values of equality and security. Once the Federation openly expressed its support for Hamas and Hezbollah, both recognized in Canadian law as terrorist groups, it made little sense for Canadian taxpayers to give financial assistance to their agenda.

The Canadian Arab Federation didn't take kindly to having that financial largess closed to them and launched one lawsuit after another in an effort to have the funding reinstated Mr. Kenney's decision to cut off funding was upheld by the Federal Court in 2014, and more recently the Federal Court of Appeal validated the decision of the Federal Court.

The contractual annual million dollars to the CAF for its language-training services to new immigrants was recognized as inappropriate. A CAF executive had attended a conference in Cairo where Hamas and Hezbollah delegates were also present. He had that experience in common with the Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien; little wonder that his successor, Justin Trudeau, is now courting the very same demographic with the very same agenda.

The CAF's contention that the decision represented an "abuse of authority", "a blatant attempt to suppress criticism of Israel", was rejected by the Federal Appeal Court in July. And, at the present time, Mr Alghabra acts as a policy adviser to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, having lost his Mississauga-Erindale seat in 2008 and 2011 to a Conservative. Even while he is now attempting to win it back.