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.