Playing The Racism Card In Expansive Vitriol

"Laith Maouf should have never received funding. And I'm assured by Minister Hussen that not only has that funding been cut, but that he's going to conduct an extensive review of the funding that is being distributed through this program."

"[Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen is working] to ensure that no federal funds are used in any way to suborn [sic] the kind of hate [that was seen in the Laith Marouf case in an email."
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino

"Antisemitism, hate and racism in all its forms have no place in Canada; [the situation with the CMAC is] absolutely unacceptable."

"That is why we have also instructed the Department of Canadian Heritage to identify how CMAC was able to access funding in the first place, and to look for immediate solutions when it comes to properly vetting funding applicants, including any individuals they employ or partner with."

"Minister Hussen will continue to work with his colleagues to ensure that programs that are both within and outside of his purview are assessed with strong processes, in order t ensure nothing like this ever happens again."

"We are leaving no stone unturned on this matter."

Diversity and Inclusion Ministry spokesperson Arevig Afarian

 

"Jewish White Supremacists [are] loud mouthed bags of human feces."

"Frogs have much less IQ than 77. [French is an] ugly language."

"Nothing is more harmful to any decolonization movement in the world -- than Jewish White Boys/Girls."

"[Blacks and Indigenous figures are] house slaves."

Laith Marouf -- Antisemite Extraordinaire

Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen is calling on the Community Media Advocacy Centre to explain how it will rectify the damage caused by a series of controversial tweets. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

As the days go by since it was first revealed that government auspices and taxpayer funding have gone out to one of the most outspoken racists in Canada -- on a contract signed between Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen and the Community Media Advocacy Centre's 'chief consultant' Laith Marouf, to hold cross-Canada seminars instructing broadcasters and news media how best to address issues plaguing the country, of racism and institutionalized discrimination -- more details are emerging.

Palestinian-Syrian Laith Marouf was a practised racist from his university days when he promoted BDS and staged protests against Jewish or Israeli speakers invited by campus groups to address university students. His scrawling of antisemitic and anti-Israel racist slurs on university property saw him forbidden access to university property. That he also wrote scathing slanders about Aboriginal, Black and French citizens demonstrated the wide stretch of those he maligned, but his main focus was always on the denigration of Jews.

His activities and his statements were prominent enough and sufficiently frequent that anyone in public office doing even a casual background search before committing to hiring him as a consultant or in any other public capacity would have immediately come across the negative consequences of any alliance with the man. Which hasn't seemed to be an impediment to government departments searching out a potential source to augment government programs on inclusion, diversity and anti-racism.

 

Laith Marouf delivering a May 22 "anti-racism" seminar to Canadian broadcasters. This particular talk began with a rant against the "Zionist apartheid regime." Photo by Facebook

Yet the ministers responsible in this recently-divulged imbroglio had no inkling whatever who and what they were dealing with; no idea that the man and the group he represented were one and the same, no idea that the venomous tripe he disgorged was incendiary hate. Former Member of Parliament Michael Levitt, once in Justin Trudeau's Liberal caucus wrote: 

"Looking back on events over the last week [with] regards to Marouf affair, I'm utterly disheartened. Taking a stand against antisemitism should be a given [and] yet so few of my former Liberal colleagues have done so."

It is both inexplicable and incredible that a seasoned hater, who when he was granted citizenship in 2020 posted a slam against "Apartheid Canada" for having taken too long to process his application for citizenship, was never identified as someone whose worldview and specific hatreds in an ongoing campaign of vilification of minorities and Jews in particular would never be tagged as unsuitable for Canadian citizenship.

It seems fairly inconsequential in funding dollars that his latest contract amounted to $133,000 to partner with the government of Canada in fighting ethnic and religious biases in media coverage. But it was the imprimatur of the Canadian government that gained this man and his group legitimacy of official recognition that went  beyond the value of mere dollars. But wait: these were not the only government departments that saw fit to do business with this reprehensible bigot.

Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications consultant who had long followed the affairs of this man revealed that federal records indicate CMAC/Marouf collected $537,480 in contract revenues from the Broadcast Participation Fund between 2016 and 2021. Minister Hussen, who had praised Marouf several months back with the signing of the contract, more latterly called on CMAC to explain how they could have hired someone of his ilk as their primary (and only) consultant, an "antisemetic" and "xenophobic" figure.

Representing the Montreal area, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather revealed that Minister Hussen had dismissed his own earlier warnings and cautionary advice about the quality of Marouf's character. A day ago MP Housefather called on "all 338 Members of Parliament" to condemn the "antisemitism  and hate expressed by Marouf". University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist remarked on how strangely silent the federal government is on the affair.

With the revelation of Marouf's hateful remarks about French Canadians, their intelligence quotient and their language, a stir has arisen from that source that doesn't appreciate being named as 'frogs'. To which Marouf wrote in response: "It is astounding how easy it has been for the pro-Israeli lobby to whip the racist media in Quebec into a frenzy against a Palestinian Arab man".

Laith Marouf of the Community Media Advocacy Centre is seen in a file photo from 2010 in Montreal. Photo by Peter McCabe / Postmedia News

"After this week's media coverage, CMAC is reminded of how online and mainstream media are powerful tools of White Supremacy."

"[Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC)] continues to see the need for an anti-racism strategy for broadcasting that disrupts settler-colonialism and oppression in the media."

"CMAC is a not-for-profit corporation, engaging in research, relationship building, and learning to advocate for the rights of Indigenous, racialized and disability communities within the communications, broadcasting and media industries."

Laith Marouf, founder, strategist, Community Media Advocacy Centre

Pure wokespeak, beloved by the Liberal Government of Canada. Which didn't hesitate to turn up sedimentary landscape rocks in their tireless search for an appropriately seasoned, anti-racist committed to aligning with government programs to abolish racism in Canada's airwaves, print news editions and online social media.

A War of Propaganda and War Crimes

"Militarily, the city and its bridges serve as a Russian toehold on the southwest bank of the Dnieper River, which cuts Ukraine in two. Russian control of Kherson allows the Kremlin to continue to use the city as a base to try to capture the neighboring ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv, thereby crippling Ukraine’s export-based economy. Conversely, liberating Kherson is probably a prerequisite for Ukraine to recapture several other cities."

"U.S. and European weapons have already helped bring a halt to Russia’s slow advance in the east and created the potential for Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive. If that aid can be sustained — and undeniably, there are challenges and costs involved — it will make Russia’s invasion less and less sustainable. That’s ultimately what will gravely weaken the Kremlin’s illegal occupation of Ukrainian cities and its impetus to take what it wants through force, something that’s a threat not only to Ukraine but also to the U.S. and its allies."

Sébastien Roblin, military writer, Think: Opinion, Analysis, Essays

A Ukrainian soldier patrols along an undisclosed frontline position in Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine, on Aug. 23.  Alex Chan / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via AP

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has invited Russian soldiers to abandon their ill-fated mission that the Kremlin dispatched them to fulfill in invading and occupying Ukraine and slowly destroying towns and villages, emptying cities, flattening neighbouhoodrs and civil infrastructure, shelling schools and hospitals indiscriminately and generally indulging in massive human rights abuses, in their commission of war crimes. "If they want to survive, it is time for Russian soldiers to flee. Go home."

 

It has long been known that Ukrainian forces have been massing in the Donbas for an eventual planned offensive with the determination to retrieve from Moscow's clutches vast tracts of Ukraine's territory in the east that belongs to sovereign Ukraine and which Russia now claims as its own. This war began in 2014 when the Kremlin surreptitiously committed to supporting, training and arming ethnic Russian Ukrainian terrorists who succeeded in capturing with the help of the Russian military, most of Donetsk and Luhansk, declaring them to be autonomous republics.

 

To cap off their adventure in international criminality Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula, establishing its deep-water port on the Black Sea for its fleet. Both Lohansk and Donetsk have been declared by Vladimir Putin as Russian territories. But not if the government and people of Ukraine have anything to say about it and they have quite a lot invested in its history, geography, heritage and culture, not to speak of national pride.

 

Increased supplies of Western military aid has little by little allowed the Ukraine military to advance its restoration agenda, of shoving back on the Russian military. The cost to both sides in terms of lives lost; military for Russia in the tens of thousands, and both military and civilian in Ukraine's case, in equally large total numbers, remains substantial and tragic. But loss of human life, and wholesale destruction of a nation's infrastructure rings no soothing sounds of compassion from the Kremlin.

 

Moscow's propaganda machine has been churning out lies at an incredible rate and nothing, absolutely nothing that issues from Russian official sources can be trusted. Ironically, Russian media speaks with utter contempt of Ukraine's propaganda machine. In league with their president who claims Ukraine's neo-Nazi character is a potential security risk to Russia's tolerant and patient government, a threat that must be expunged and Ukraine freed from the shackles of fascism.

 

Spurring pacifist Russia to invade and to destroy its neighbour with absolute abandonment of humanity. Ukraine has now announced the start of its long-hinted-at counteroffensive meant to restore its territorial integrity from rapacious Russian intentions. For its part, Moscow has already dismissed talk of a Ukraine offensive, speaking of it as an ill-designed strategy that has already cost Ukraine dearly in lost troop lives. 

 

Russian shelling continues to target port cities such as Mykolaiv, even as the Kremlin solemnly claims time and again that the Russian military never targets non-military sites. Russian occupation in the south and east of Ukraine continues in artillery bombardments and airstrikes with swaths of Ukrainian territory near the Black Sea coast including the city of Kherson which were captured by Russia early in its invasion. Ukraine's southern command spokeswoman points out its troops began offensive actions n the south, in the Kherson region, north of Russian-annexed Crimea.

 

Ukrainian soldiers prepare artillery at the southern front line near Kherson last month  Getty Images

For its part, the Ukrainian strategy of making use of sophisticated Western-supplied weapons, hitting Russian ammunition depots and wreaking havoc with supply lines, have had their effect in demoralizing Russian troops. Ukraine struck over ten sites in the past week alone that had "unquestionably weakened the enemy". Statements that the Russia-appointed governors in the occupied territory dismiss as "Ukrainian propaganda".

Moscow claims that Ukrainian troops' attempts at an offensive in southern Mykolaiv and Kherson regions had ended with the area sustaining significant casualties: "Enemy's offensive attempt failed miserably", reported the RIA news agency quoting a local Russia-appointed official reporting the evacuation of people from Nova Kahokva in the east of Kherson following over ten missile strikes by Ukrainian forces. 

Mykolaiv is a shipbuilding centre and port on the Southern Bug river off the Black Sea and has suffered heavy Russian bombardment during the course of the war, yet still remains in Ukrainian hands. The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south Ukraine is anticipating a mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate the plant's vulnerability and condition resulting from nearby shelling in the facility's vicinity. 

The mission is to assess physical damage, evaluate working conditions and check safety and security systems, and "perform urgent safeguards activities", referencing tracking nuclear material. The Kremlin refuses to vacate the nuclear site even as the United Nations, United States and Ukraine call for withdrawal of military equipment and personnel from the complex, to completely remove the possibility that it will become a target in this war of attrition.

 

 

Caught in the Online Consumer Web : Come Into My Parlour Said the Spider to the Fly

"It's acquiring this vast set of data that Roomba collects about people's homes."

"Its obvious intent, through all the other products that it sells to consumers, is to be in your home"

"[And] along with the privacy issues come the antitrust issues, because it's buying market share."

Ron Knox, Amazon critic, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, anti-monopoly group

"It's hard to think of another organization that has so many touch points as Amazon does to an individual."

"It's almost overwhelming, and it's hard to put a finger on it."

Ian Greenblatt, head, tech research, J.D. Power, consumer research and data analytics

"You can almost see them just trying to paint a broader picture of an individual."

"It's about the inferences that they're able to draw about you specifically, and then you [are] compared to other people."

Krisen Martin, professor of technology ethics, University of Notre Dame

"We do not use home maps for targeted advertising and have no plans to do so."

"[Customers' health information will be handled separately from all other Amazon businesses; Amazon would not share personal health information outside of One Medical for] advertising or marketing purposes of other Amazon products and services without clear permission from the customer."

Lisa Levandowski, spokesperson, Amazon

The Amazon logo is seen outside its JFK8 distribution center in Staten Island, New York, U.S.. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

 

When an enterprise becomes hugely monopolistic there is no limit to what it can potentially aim for, and in the case of Amazon, the giant online retailer with wide tentacles across the world of the Internet and commerce, it has raised the shopping experience to a level never before hinted at, becoming a global colossus. Large and influential to people's acquisition options as it is, the enterprise is nowhere near the point of stagnation in growth.

The larger, and more widespread it becomes with the acquisition of other, related businesses in the effort to expand its own, the greater its grasp and its intention to use artificial intelligence and the power of dependence and algorithms to keep expanding while making the great global shopping public more dependent on the convenience of its acquaintance with intimate shopping expressions of the individual too busy to mind being manipulated.

 

Amazon has virtual eyes and ears everywhere, a great grasping mercantile industry whose raison d'etre appears to be ever-expanding sales opportunities unleashed by an international corporatism of greed and power over those addicted to the comfort and simplicity of online ordering of anything and everything consumers are convinced they require to get on with their lives in the 21st century. Amazon can claim it is thinking of helping its consumer base by making things easier for them through its relationship with intimate knowledge of the individual's habits.

In recent weeks, Amazon bruited about its intention to spend billions in two huge acquisitions. Approved, those greater-reach-enabling good buys will substantially broaden Amazon's presence in consumers' lives. The two areas targeted, health care through a $3.9 billion buyout of primary care company One Medical, and the "smart home" where plans to expand an already obvious presence through a $1.7 billion merger with iRobot, manufacturer of robotic Roomba vacuum.

Privacy concerns about how Amazon gathers personal data and what it plans to use it for have heightened with these two planned mergers. The most recent line of Roombas use sensors to map and remember the floor plan of a house. A feature the consumer can choose to opt out of, but few would, since it enhances the usefulness and efficiency of the robot floor cleaner.

There are estimates that indicate the retail giant controls approximately 38 percent of the U.S. e-commerce market which allows it to gather granular data on shopping preferences of millions of Americans and greater numbers worldwide. Its Echo devices housing voice assistant Alexa dominate the U.S. smart speaker market, accounting for an estimated 70 percent of sales, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Acquired for $1 billion in 2018, Ring monitors doorsteps, helping police track down crime, even though its users may be unaware. Amazon is testing a palm-scanning technology at select Amazon and Whole Foods stores, allowing customers to pay for items by storing biometric data in the cloud, which sparks concerns over risks of a data breach. "We treat your palm signature just like other highly sensitive personal data and keep it safe using best-in-class technical and physical security controls", Amazon announced reassuringly.

Amazon's gain through collecting data is moving steadily toward achieving its primary goal of selling products. "For them, data is all about getting you to buy more and be locked into their stuff", remarked Alex Harman, director of competition policy at the anti-monopoly group Economic Security Project.

The Epitome Proponant of Critical Race Theory

"[The First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres representative is a] wacko Indigenous House-Slave."

"[Israel], Jewish White Supremacists [the United States and the Commonwealth nations are apartheid colonies whose occupants must leave]: Come get your garbage, Europe!"

"[The CRTC should] cater to racialized voices in the face of the media oligarchy that is defrauding the public in Canada."

"Zios [are] directing their attack dogs [on me]."

Laith Marouf, principal, Community Advocacy Media Centre

Laith Marouf  (Peter McCabe / THE GAZETTE )

"Mr. Minister [Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen]: You are taking us for fools. You are calling on CMAC [Community Advocacy Media Centre] to answer 'how they came to hire Laith Marouf'?"

"Are you not aware that he and his wife Gretchen King 'are' CMAC?"

"That they and CMAC share the same address? That it was you and Marouf who announced this program?"

Hillel Neuer, executive director, UN Watch

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau has been quiet, very quiet on this file. The actual Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez -- under whose imprimatur the contract was signed to hire the Community Advocacy Media Centre and Palestinian-Syrian activist and racist-slanderer Laith Marouf, well known for his penchant for offhand racist slanders, to head an anti-racist program for Canadian media -- has said nothing, much less apologized for gross ineptitude.

It seems that information is being revealed from investigators that this man who starts his anti-race lectures by first making certain that his media listeners are quite aware of Israel's "Apartheid" status and that Palestinians are overdue their claims to the land that Israel sits on, before engaging with the terms of the contract he was hired to fulfill as the anti-racist expert the government and Minister Hussen touted him to be.

The Canadian-Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission has developed a long trusting association with this same man as an adviser on race relations and equity. The $133,000 contract with Canadian Heritage pales before the $500,000 doled out to him by the CRTC for his professional services. Just as Heritage Canada couldn't bother Googling inconvenient racist statements made by this man, neither did the CRTC.

Ineptitude, or did they just not care? Marouf's blistering advocacy for BDS, his student activist days, blocking Jewish speakers from addressing university audiences, his daubings of racist, antisemitic slogans on university campuses, his snarling references to Jews as 'white-supremacists', his hateful comments about Jamaican-American Colin Powell, all mark him as a bigot of the first water.

But no one in this Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, committed to woke ideology cared to know, and knew no care in developing a working relationship with him, instead invoking with pride their trust in his professional qualities as a spokesman against racism. Even though in 2020 he accused the CRTC of enabling "an apartheid on the airwaves", they snuggled up to him.

This, the expert on the evils of racist dogma pervading our airwaves, who once spoke of the CBC president as a "pimp of racist, Genocidal, colonialist, Imperialist and Supremacist propaganda". 

Laith Marouf
Policy Consultant, Community Media Advocacy Centre
1861 Rue wellington,
Montreal, Quebec, H3K1W2,
cmac@riseup.net

RE: Request for information with respect to the application for deferral account funding of the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) in the proceeding initiated by Telecom and Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2020-124

The Commission is in receipt of the application for deferral account funding filed by the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) in respect of the above-noted proceeding. The purpose of this letter is to request additional information from CMAC regarding its applications for costs.

Before further consideration of the application may be undertaken, CMAC is requested to provide the following information:

1. The record appears to indicate that the claimants, Mr. Laith Marouf and Dr. Gretchen King have positions within CMAC as Policy Consultant and Secretary, respectively. Accordingly, it may be appropriate to categorize the claimants as in-house consultants, subject to a daily rate of $470, rather than external senior consultants subject to an hourly rate of $225. Please clarify whether these are paid staff positions within CMAC and to what extent the claimants take part in or control the day-to-day operations of the organization^Footnote1.
2. If the claimants do not have paid positions within CMAC or control its day-to-day operations, please provide details regarding their specialized knowledge or relevant experience, which would relate to the subject matter of the proceeding.^Footnote2

CMAC is to file a response to the request for information by 3 March 2021.

A copy of this letter and all related correspondence will be added to the record of the proceeding.

Sincerely,

 

Smuggling In Style

"As the world becomes more interconnected, organized crime groups continue to expand internationally, seeking more direct access to lucrative foreign and criminal markets."

"A significant portion of the RCMP's Federal Policing investigations are focused on Transnational and Serious Organized Crime networks that traffic multiple commodities, within Canada and internationally."

Camille Boily-Lavoie, spokeswoman, RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)

Police in Australia discovered cocaine and meth hidden behind a headlight of a vintage Bentley luxury sedan shipped from Canada. Two men were arrested. Photo by New South Wales Police

Large loads of cocaine and meth were found by police in Australia with a value estimated at $135 million, hidden in areas inside a vintage Bentley luxury sedan shipped from Canada to Australia early in the month. The 1960 Bentley S2 had been placed in a shipping container, sent by sea. At arrival in Port Botany in Sydney the container was X-rayed by Australian Border Force agents, who identified suspicious anomalies.

The New South Wales Police were called upon, and further examination of the vehicle revealed plastic-wrapped bags of crystal methamphetamine stuffed behind the headlights. Police partially dismantled he car, leading officers to find 161 kilograms of crystal meth in bags, and an additional 30 kilos of cocaine wrapped into tight bricks. Authorities initiated a task force to investigate the importation, working with the RCMP.

Detectives backed by heavily armed members of the riot squad raided a residence in a Sydney suburb where two men, 20 and 23 years of age, were arrested. Police had removed the drugs, reassembled the car and had it proceed to its destination. Photographs of the raid reflect the distinctive lines of the metallic silver Bentley in a home driveway, under an open car port.

Police photographs of the raid shows the distinctive lines of a metallic silver Bentley in the driveway of a home, under an open car port. Photo by New South Wales Police

 

Photographs show the left headlight partially removed and left dangling; the left front tire off, tools scattered about. Police had waited for the recipients to begin attempting the retrieval of the load, before deciding to swoop in and make their arrests. About 740 kilometres north, close to Brisbane, a third, 25-year-old suspect was arrested, leading to the seizure of an additional 2.2 kilograms of meth and around $1 million in cash.

This incident follows hard on an earlier smuggling attempt when the country's largest ever seizure of fentanyl was effected. It had been shipped from Canada as well, hidden in an industrial lathe, similarly found to be suspicious looking, with X-rays revealing something amiss. That shipment that arrived in Melbourne, sent from Vancouver, also contained 11 kilograms of high-purity fentanyl and 30 kilograms of meth.

It appears that drug-rapacious Australians are hugely dependent on Canada for sourcing their illicit drugs. Early this year, two Canadian gangsters from Vancouver were found guilty of running a multi-million-dollar drug smuggling network, associated with Vice Media where interns for the group worked as drug mules, smuggling coke on flights to Australia.

 

It appears police removed the drugs, reassembled the car and allowed it to proceed on its journey to be delivered to whomever might be expecting it. Photo by New South Wales Police

"Great Friend to Canada"

"[We] vehemently object [to Jibril Rajoub being described as a friend to Canada]."

"He has been charged with glorifying terrorism, and is guilty of inciting hatred and violence against Israelis by politicizing sport."

"He does not share our values as Canadians."

Liberal Members of Parliament, Ya'ara Saks and Anthony Housefather

 

"A Canadian official tells a terrorist he’s a 'great friend to Canada'."

"Jibril Rajoub has been convicted of committing multiple terrorist attacks. He uses sports to incite hatred, FIFA agrees."

"A great friend?"

Canadian MP Melissa Lantsman

Senior Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub    (photo credit: LEON SVERDLOV)

This government seems to go out of its way to prove time and again that its relationship with its Jewish population is an afterthought. Or that it occupies no thought at all. As when the official opening ceremonies of the Holocaust Memorial took place and it was found that the memorial plaque mentioned the genocide that took place during World War II resulting in the death of countless men, women and children, but somehow managed not to indicate that these were Jews. Nowhere was the very word "Jews' in evidence. An oversight that when drawn to its attention, the government swiftly corrected.

Like the occasional votes in the United Nations that Canada sees fit to vote for that pit the Jewish state against the UN's biased Human Rights Commission. And that despite the Liberal government's assurances that it is in full support of a fellow democracy in a geography of caliphs, dictators and theocracies where it must daily be on alert against violent attacks by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it becomes increasingly evident that under this government, it is mere lip service, vastly unlike the authentic commitment of its predecessor Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

A week ago it was revealed that a flaming racist, hypocrite inciting hatred against Jews and Israel had been contracted with to operate an anti-racism program for the federal government. This, despite the group contracted with and funded by Heritage Canada was headed by a Jew-hating racist whose frequent expressions of contempt and threatened violence against Jews were readily accessible for viewing by any curious researcher.

Mere days after a backlash with the discovery of the vile statements of the founder of the Community Media Advocacy Centre, comes news of a statement from Canada's representative to the Palestinian Authority praising a Palestinian official and convicted criminal, Jibril Rajoub. A meeting between Robin Wettlaufer and terrorist-turned Fatah official, Rajoub was followed up with praise issued by the representative to the Palestinian Authority, recognizing the man as a "friend to Canada".

 

Only in the sense that he is most appreciative of the fact that Canada's government is not in the least perturbed at the presence of Palestinians who have permanent residence status or/and Canadian citizenship, or who come to Canada on student visas to study at Canadian universities where they become 'activists' promoting BDS, and mounting protests over speakers invited to address students at conferences, or give lectures, if they are Jews or Israelis, or supporters of the State of Israel.

That contingents of Palestinians and their 'sympathizers' mount yearly Al Quds memorials, mourning the reality of the State of Israel, and Palestinian dispersal from the historically hereditary Judean homeland -- chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!", a none-too-difficult code to decipher inciting for the destruction of Israel -- is a travesty of Canadian hate-law perversion. Palestine was, throughout history, a Roman-derived descriptive for the historical homeland of Judea.

The Palestinian penchant for claiming all that is historically Judean is really Palestinian, from the identity of Jesus himself, to the nomenclature of Palestine, to the ancient Judean prophets as Palestinian, not Jewish, is an exercise is absurdity, yet repeated often enough it finds sympathy in historically ignorant people satisfied to adapt to any groundless slanders that indicate Jews victimize non-Jews, a matter of satisfaction to Jew-haters.

Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, former head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Force, Rajoub incites to violence toward Israel. Sentenced in 1979 to life in prison following his conviction of throwing a grenade at Israel Defence Forces, he was freed after 15 years, in a prisoner exchange. Militant activities (aka terrorism) put him back under arrest on several occasions before he was elevated to a national security adviser post for Yasser Arafat.

Rajoub speaking on Hezbollah-affiliated  television network Al Mayadeen, that the Palestinian Authority would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against Israel, if it but possessed any. "I swear that if we had a nuke, we'd have used it this very morning", was the translation provided by Palestinian Media Watch. He was suspended and fined by the FIFA disciplinary board in 2018 for inciting hate and violence by calling on soccer fans to burn jerseys and pictures of Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi before a match in a Jerusalem stadium with his national team.

Russia's Ukraine War of Attrition

"There are craniocerebral injuries, limb fractures, many patients with explosive and shrapnel injuries, burns."

"People were in a difficult condition, both physically and psychologically."

"Now our efforts are focused on the children who suffered. We work with four children. Three children out of four are in serious condition. In addition to severe stress, they have blast and shrapnel injuries, burns and fractures."

"The children are in serious condition."

Tetyana Kvitnytska, deputy head, Dnipropetrovsk regional health department

People stand next to a residential house destroyed by a Russian military strike on Wednesday in Chaplyne, in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region. (Dmytro Smolienko/Reuters)

 

 On the anniversary of Ukraine's independence from Russia, there was a general alert to all Ukrainian citizens to be aware and to take shelter at any air raid signals. Independence anniversary celebrations were officially cancelled for fear that the Russian military would target large crowds of civilians. Despite being under threat, Ukrainians decided they would celebrate anyway, and they did on their national Independence Day holiday.

 

There was a surprise attack on a train station in Chaplyne, a small town in the central Dnipropetrovsk region on Wednesday, exactly six months since the Russian 'special military operation' was launched into Ukraine. The Kremlin stated that its military had targeted a troop-carrying train, killing 200 Ukrainian troops. 

 

In actual fact, 25 people were killed as a result of that deadly strike, and 31 injured. According to witnesses, some of the victims which included at least one child, burned to death either trapped in burning train cars or in passing cars. "Everything sank into dust", 65-year-old Chaplyne resident Olena Budnyk, stated. "There was a dust storm. We couldn't see anything. We didn't know where to run". 

And once again a nuclear meltdown fear is pervading the area surrounding the Ukrainian nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia, which Russian occupation is endangering, with Russia using the plant as a base from which to shell surrounding towns and Ukrainian military bases. On Wednesday the last remaining electrical transmission wire powering the plant was damaged. Fortunately a backup power line re-connected the plant, with the use of electricity from a different, but non-nuclear plant.

 

Russia has been trying to modernize its army in recent years, including by increasing numbers of contract soldiers   Reuters

 

During the six-month conflict Russia has lost tens of thousands of military personnel, as has Ukraine. Russia's losses include military commanders, a  highly unusual number for such a short period of time. A testament to Ukrainian defiance of a larger, better-equipped, but inferior-motivated army that has been demoralized by the heavy losses it has sustained. To compensate for those losses, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a major increase of his military forces in the light of a projected long grind ahead in his determination to conquer Ukraine's spirit.

The aim is to increase troop numbers by an additional 137,000 servicemen, roughly13 percent, to 1.15 million by year's end. The question of where those 'volunteers' would be coming from, to augment the dwindling troop numbers, whether by increasing draft numbers, or recruiting additional volunteers is yet unknown. Some Russian military analysts expect more reliance on volunteers to prevent the Russian public from creating a backlash should the draft be expanded.

Acco9rding to the U.S. Pentagon, up to 80,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded, thus impairing Moscow's plans to plan large offensives. Military analysts feel the planned troop levels may not in fact meet the needs of sustainable operational numbers. While the Kremlin speaks of reliance on volunteers to augment the ranks, it is questioned where those volunteers will come from. Even promising imprisoned criminals sentence forgiveness in exchange for volunteering for military service, has resulted in few volunteers.

Another expert has pointed out that training is time-consuming; complex modern weapons training normally take three years to ensure competence, while draftees serve one year only. "A draft won't help that, so there will be no increase in the number of draftees", state RIA Novosti news agency quoted military expert Alexei Leonkov, as warning of the difficulties that lie ahead. 

 

A Russian soldier guards an area at the Alley of Glory in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, which was captured in March. Photograph: AP

 

The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant remains chaotic and volatile, not only because of Ukraine and Russia blaming one another for shelling at the plant but because of other issues. The Russian-installed regional government now accuses Ukrainian troops of having caused not only the fire that damaged the transmission lines, while Ukraine's nuclear energy agency Energoatom pointed to "actions of the invaders", but nature too has taken a hand in increasing the element of danger to the plant and the areas surrounding it most immediately.

"The situation is extremely dangerous. I'm receiving reports that there are fires in the forest near the power plant. We still have to examine this issue more", warned Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Wildfires in nearby forests either attributable to natural causes or to dry conditions being ignited by stray shells or missiles hitting the forests. Either way, it's an increase in the danger level of the potential for disaster at the plant.

 

 

Canada's Campaign for Inclusivity, Anti-Racism

"I said the contract had to be cancelled. I alerted him and I persistently communicated with the minister in his office, from the day I learned about it, until today, and aggressively demanded that action be taken."

"Action could have been taken more quickly."

"[I am] very pleased that the minister and his office had been collaborative with me, but I believe that the action should have been taken more swiftly."

"[There needs to be a] thorough review in the Department of Heritage as to how this happened [and processes need to be in place to make certain it doesn't re-occur]."

"I think we all want to understand how, when it was relatively simple to Google what Mr. Marouf has said over the last 20 years that was insulting not only to Jews, but to other groups like French Canadians, how the department awarded a contract to a group that is so closely tied to Mr. Marouf and his partner."

"His name was listed as one of the people providing the training at the first few training sessions. Nobody noticed this."

Liberal Member of Parliament, Anthony Housefather

"There is a Canadian Ministry of Heritage that is not accepting accountability despite a vetting process that just wasn't there."

"The key question is, what is the vetting process? How does a guy like this get through?"

"[It's] important for the Heritage committee to get some answers."

Conservative Member of Parliament Melissa Lantsman 

Laith Marouf outside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in a photo he posted to social media while employed as a Government of Canada “anti-racism” coordinator. In an accompanying caption, Marouf expresses his wish that the memorial (which contains the names of more than 7,000 Black soldiers killed in the conflict) should contain “millions” more names. Photo by Twitter

 

The 'guy' in question over this clumsy, inept mess that saw a Syrian-Palestinian 'activist' whose main purpose in life appears to be the vilification of Israel as an Apartheid oppressor of Palestinians, and whose contempt for Jews and 'Zionist scum' leads him to repeatedly in public forums state his willingness to shoot Jews in the head, slandering them as sub-human, straight out of a Goebbels propaganda manual, found Canada's Heritage Ministry hiring a committed racist as an authoritative speaker on behalf of a government-supported program on anti-racism, spout hatred and divisiveness instead.

Equality and Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen oversaw a contract between Heritage Canada and the Community Media Advocacy group, whose senior consultant was a well-known racist, to design an anti-racism strategy for the broadcasting sector. The Canadian Press reported a week ago on tweets emanating from that senior consultant, Laith Marouf. After which Minister Hussen stated he requested that Canadian Heritage "look closely at the situation involving disturbing comments made by the individual in question." The follow-up a day later was a formal announcement that funding would be cut to CMAC.

Now a prominent member of Parliament has come forward to reveal that he contacted the minister even before the news was widely reported in the media. In April a press release  from CMAC touted the launch of consultations on building an anti-racism strategy for the Canadian broadcasting sector. "In Canada, diversity is a fact, but inclusion is a choice. Our government is proud to contribute to the initiative", Ahmed Hussein stated in a news release. In point of fact, the Community Media Advocacy Centre is comprised of only two individuals; Marouf and his wife. A little factoid the minister was unaware of when he stated he planned to ask CMAC how they came to hire a racist.

"Mr. Minister: You are taking us for fools. You are calling on CMAC to answer ‘how they came to hire Laith Marouf’?"

"Are you not aware that he and his wife Gretchen King are CMAC? That they and CMAC share the same address?"

"That it was you and Marouf who announced this program?"

 UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer

"I have a motto: Life is too short for shoes with laces, or for entertaining Jewish White Supremacists with anything but a bullet to the head."

"You know all those loud-mouthed bags of human feces, AKA the Jewish White Supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from, they will return to being low-voiced b*****s of their Christian/secular white supremacist masters."

Laith Marouf

Russian Barbaric, Reckless Nationalism

"Russia was forced to take steps to protect itself from the neo-Nazis who were shelling civilians in Donbass for eight years, and continue to this day."

"Russia's special military action was a reaction to] Ukrainian nationalists who for many years were killing peaceful citizens ... "

"They don't act in a Christian way but at the instigation of demonic powers ... there is no other way to call that absolutely barbaric, reckless nationalism they profess."

"You'd think that the West would listen and come to some sort of terms with Russia on these issues because we're talking about a potential nuclear war."

"I would venture to say the war was not started by Russia; it was started by the West."

Archbishop Gabriel, Canadian head of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia

Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada referred to Ukrainian forces as “neo-Nazi” and “demonic,” and said his parishes would continue to commemorate Patriarch Kirill in services. Photo by Wikipedia

"I know many Ukrainians have stopped attending the [Toronto] parish or stopped shopping in their church goods store as a result."

"Overall, this is a very difficult time for Orthodox unity in general. Many Orthodox Christians in Canada are having serious crises of faith watching the Russian Orthodox church bless troops going into Ukraine to rape and pillage."

Reverend Alexander Laschuk, executive director, University of Toronto Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies

How hard to believe it is that human intelligence can be so skewed from reality that the aggressor attributes all of its most horrendous atrocities to the commission of its victims. That it is Russia and Russian troops that are exerting truly barbaric measures so far from the Christian ideal of treating others as you would have them treat you, and attributing the viciously violent mayhem that the Kremlin has visited on its neighbour, to the victim is mind-gaspingly unbelievable, a parody of veracity.

 

As for the dreadful prospect of a nuclear conflagration: who was it who not-so-obliquely and a touch archly referred to their nuclear arsenal being 'on alert' and at the ready to be deployed should the occasion arise?  Yes, the world knows that Russia has a huge nuclear arsenal, reputed to be the largest in the world. How many of its atomic bombs would be needed to destroy humanity?

 

But there he is, Russia's Orthodox Church head representative in Canada, tarnishing its own reputation by imputing to Ukraine and its military the debased medieval mindset of destruction, looting and murder it is itself committed to, extolling the virtues of Russia while painting the desperate efforts of its neighbour to defend itself and its people as un-Christian, and repellent, the reflection of an imputed neo-Nazi scheme to harm Russia. 

 

Residential and commercial buildings in Kharkiv that have been pummeled by Russian missile strikes.  Photograph by Larry Towell/Magnum photos.

 

The Kremlin's talking points in defence of its 'special military operation' in Ukraine which has levelled towns and villages, sent millions of Ukrainian civilians into exile, displaced millions more, targeting schools, civic centres and hospitals with continued shelling; occupied Europe's largest nuclear installation, placing the community around it under siege, and endangering the entire country by a threat of a nuclear accident, are now echoed in far-off Canada by the Church's elite cleric.

It seems evident from his scathing remarks that Canada is home to citizens of Russian origin who believe as he does, clasping the Kremlin's views and excuses of attacking a neighbour because it has been provoked by fear of a fascist invasion, when the truth is far closer to the Kremlin being a fascist government under a Putin dictatorship. The occupation of the Donbas is illegal in every sense of internationally-recognized sovereignty. 

Crimea's annexation by Moscow represents a war crime just as does the indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure and deliberate targeting of civilians. In Ukraine's latest election, no far-right candidates won office. The man elected as president of Ukraine is a Jewish Ukrainian whose relatives died in the Holocaust. The infamous Azov battalion which earned its fascist reputation during World War II is distant from the extremist element that once characterized its relations with the German SS.

And in Canada it is known that one of the Russian Orthodox Churches in Toronto raises funds for the 'Donetsk People's Republic' in Eastern Ukraine, ruled by ethnic Russian Ukrainian separatist elements.  Bishop Gabriel made it known in an interview that the atrocities recognized as war crimes the West charges Russia with, were actually committed by Ukraine in a diabolical scheme to blacken Russia's international image.

 

A woman stands by a mass grave in Bucha. Photograph by Larry Towell/Magnum photos

"Mr. Chemodskov's [Bishop Gabriel was born George Chemodskov] comments are unacceptable and they should be denounced for what they are: Russian disinformation."

"The fact is that Russia is fighting a war of choice against Ukraine and Russian forces are committing atrocities on a massive scale."

"We cannot let the Putin regime escape international accountability by spreading lies."

Adrien Blanchard, spokesman for Foreign Affairs Canada

In Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, and universal  head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has wholly supported the war with Ukraine, justifying it in the very same words and explanations used by the Kremlin. His voice is one of the most compelling in support of the invasion of Ukraine. He is known to give blessings to generals and other Russian soldiers. 

 

Kirill has described the war as a measure to "defend the Fatherland" against the decadent Western forces, promoting "Russky Mir", a Russian homeland encompassing Ukraine and Belarus. Belarus may be in the bag, but Ukraine has emphatically declined the honour to return itself to the status of a satellite Communist state, part of Greater Russia. In the process demonstrating that the only 'great' thing about Russia is its penchant for acting as a liberator when it is in reality a totalitarian prison for dissenters.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill releases birds celebrating the Annunciation preceding the celebration of Orthodox Easter in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 7, 2022. | AP Photo

Canada's Commitment to Anti-Racism

"Colin Powell, the Jamaican house-slave of the Empire who extinguished the lives of millions of people with his lies, died a painful death unable to breath (sic). If there was any good that came from this pandemic, it would be his death on the birthday of the prophet of Islam."

"I have a motto: Life is too short for shoes with laces, or for entertaining Jewish White Supremacists with anything but a bullet to the head."

"lol, I think Frogs have much less IQ than 77, and French is an ugly language."

"You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, a.k.a. the Jewish White Supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from, they will return to being low voiced bitches of thier (sic) Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters."

Laith Marouf, Anti-racist champion 

The Liberal government has cut funding to an outside group it hired to deliver anti-racism training after it was discovered that one of the group's leaders made antisemitic remarks in social media posts. CBC

Nothing seems to stop this government from negotiating contracts with groups so obviously incapable of delivering programs they are assigned government funding for, after negotiating for their professional services on behalf of government programs. Two years ago it was the Trudeau Liberal government signing a contract with a charitable group whose status was questionable and whose ability to fulfill the guidelines of the program it was assigned to was negligible. A scandal ensued when it emerged the sole-source contract was a personal affair.

The current situation with Heritage Canada and Minister Ahmed Hussen (above) contracting with a group calling itself Community Media Advocacy Centre, to deliver an "anti-racism" seminar program to Canadian broadcasters, has erupted in scandal with the revelation that the group's head consultant is a flaming racist infamous for his social media statements replete with slanders against Israel and comments about 'Jewish White Supremacists', and the urge to kill Jews.

How the government agency could contract out such an important file without background-checking the principals involved is beyond belief. The group's chief consultant, Laith Marouf, is not entirely unknown as an individual whose slanders come straight from the gutter. His Twitter account had been suspended on grounds of "hateful conduct", and he quickly began another account where he continued to promote violence, blaming his problems on the "Zionist lobby".

As far as this man is concerned "Jewish White Supremacists" deserve only a "bullet to the head". A handful of people, made cognizant of the government hiring Marouf in the service of anti-racism was struck with disbelief. Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications consultant, accused Ottawa of "purveying hate on the public dime", noting this not being the only instance when Marouf had collected federal grants for "anti-racism" training.

Backing up 20 years, Marouf was barred from Concordia University for spraying anti-Israel graffiti on university property. Confronted by campus security he became violent, issued a death threat, and two security guards were slightly injured. The following year he was an organizer of a riot outside Condcordia University, preventing an on-campus address by former Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. Marouf evidently was a Syrian national whose father had diplomatic immunity in Canada.

A Montreal student-run television station in 2013 suspended him as executive director because of accusations he plunged the station into "crisis" by his "dictatorial" leadership which "drove a lot of people away. A lot of people did not feel comfortable working in the space around him" a CUTV board member stated. In fulfilling the current contract with Heritage Canada, in May speaking in Vancouver, Marouf informed listeners the media was governed by "colonialism and racism", condemning "the Zionist apartheid regime", accusing Israel of a decades long campaign of "genocide".

He also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of leading a "Nazi-Zionist" alliance conspiring for war with Russia which would favour Israel with an increased flow of Jewish immigration from the embattled country attacked by Russia. His cross-Canada anti-racism tour underway, in July Marouf posted photos of himself giving the middle finger at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington with his personal wish it might contain a "few million" more names.

His lawyer denies that his client is a bigoted racist Not at all. His client had no "animus toward the Jewish faith as a collective group".

"Antisemitism has no place in this country."

"We have provided notice to the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) that their funding has been cut and their project has been suspended."

"We call on CMAC, an organization claiming to fight racism and hate in Canada to answer to how they came to hire Laith Marouf, and how they plan on rectifying the situation given the nature of his antisemitic and xenophobic comments."

Minister of Inclusion and Diversity, Ahmed Hussen, Heritage Canada