Normalization of Antisemitism in Canada

"[Our] findings indicate that many Jewish students face widespread and persistent antisemitism on Canadian campuses as a defining feature of post-secondary life that shapes their behaviour, their ability to fully participate in campus life, their safety, and their well-being."

"[The Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences report] provides the most comprehensive national evidence to date on antisemitism in Canadian post-secondary institutions."

"These accounts reveal a university culture that is both not welcoming to Jewish students and actively and systematically trying to exclude and vilify them."

Jack Jedwab, Paul Holley, Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute 

 

"What this study has confirmed is that Jewish students are being targeted simply for being Jews, and that is completely and utterly unacceptable."

"[I hope the findings will become a] wake-up call [for college and university administrators across Canada."

Jay Solomon, senior executive, Jewish student network Hillel Ontario 

Pro-Israel demonstrators protest outside a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on McGill University's campus in Montreal in the spring of 2024. A new national report says a vast majority of Jewish students have experienced or witnessed antisemitism on campus. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

 

According to a newly-released report commissioned by Heritage Canada, Jewish students in academic institutions throughout Canada face open hostility which has become a "normalized and systemic feature of campus life". Released on Wednesday, the Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences (CASE) report concludes that over nine in ten Jewish students have experienced or witnessed campus antisemitism over the past year. In actual point of fact, the situation has been ongoing for the past three years, since the invasion from Gaza into southern Israel by Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas which resulted in a horrendous bloodbath. 

 

A survey of 900 Jewish students, along with 755 students from the broader campus population at over two dozen colleges and universities across Canada formed the basis for the survey conclusions. Over one in five Jewish students stated that they had witnessed physical violence targeting Jews, while seventy-one percent reported antisemitic graffiti on campus. Targeted incidents such as mezuzahs torn from Jewish dorm room doors in residence halls were reported. 

 

The survey results point unreservedly to a systemic crisis of antisemitism on the campuses of Canadian post-secondary institutions. "My sense is that, when you see such a high level of reporting of antisemitic incidents, the only way to describe it is systemic", cautioned Mr. Jedwab. Jewish students are not merely facing antisemitism from classmates -- points out a key insight of the report -- but also from professors and other university employees. 

 

 

 

Faculty involvement in harassment and instances of pure antisemitic virulence was cited in 18 percent of incidents reported in the survey.  According to seven in ten Jewish survey respondents their academic institution failed to take antisemitism seriously. Teaching assistants or non-teaching staff were cited as being involved in antisemitic incidents by a further 14 percent of respondents.

 

Of those taking part in the survey, thirty-six percent had encountered antisemitic or biased course content or classroom discussions. Another 34 percent revealed that a professor brought up Jews, Judaism, Israel, or Zionism at times when such references were completely unrelated to the course subject. According to over three in ten students, consideration was given by them to leaving a course or their program as a result of antisemitism expressed by professors or other students.

 

The Hub

 

 In response to the report's findings, federal Heritage Minister Marc Miller characterized the situation as "alarming". "[The findings] echo what we are seeing across Canada. Statistics Canada's most recent data shows that 71 percent of all police-reported religion-motivated hate crimes targeted Jewish Canadians", he pointed out.

 

It is, needless to say, his Liberal government that bears a good deal of responsibility for the situation. The swell of antisemitism arising from the presence of Palestinian student groups on Canadian campuses joined by non-student instigators and prompted and paid for by foreign entities invested in maligning and isolating Jews through the medium of Zionism-slander masking their pure antisemitic hatred has never been addressed by the federal government.

 

The Trudeau, and then the Carney Liberal governments invested heavily in the trifecta of Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and 'progressive' left wokeism, to set the stage, filtering down through lower levels of government, businesses, unions; permeating throughout society where Canadians seemed to shrug with the notion that it was only Jews being targeted and they could look after themselves. That the entire society, its culture, laws, values and customs have been eroded when one community among all others becomes a target of hate seems to have eluded the consciousness of conscience.

 

 

If the situation is addressed at all by executive-level politicians, it is to express the formula of 'this isn't Canada', when it clearly is. Declarations of disgust with antisemitism come with no sustained institutional efforts to reverse the trend, even when laws are being broken. Politicians can't seem to be able to resist equating the scourge of antisemitism and its meteoric rise with the tepid rise of 'Islamophobia' which evokes a much stronger response from them. 

 

The most telling reaction, however, is municipal, provincial and federal governments' failure to speak of the obvious, a failure that communicates its message to Canada's police forces -- that it is from among the Muslim communities in Canada that the wave of hateful antisemitism arose and that the fundamentalist Islamists among them organized, perpetrated and perpetuated 'protests' against the Jewish community in Canada alongside disparagement and incitement against the state of Israel responding to a terrorism war of jihad against its very existence.

 

The Hub

 

"At a time when synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish-owned businesses are being shot at and firebombed, and when Jews are disproportionately the victims of hate crimes, this report makes clear that antisemitism has also taken root in our public institutions -- including our universities."

"We call on university leaders and governments at every level to carefully consider this report.The drivers of this hatred — including antizionism — are well known, and the time to act is now. We need concrete actions to protect Canadian students."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

B'nai Brith Canada

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center 

 

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.

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,

 

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

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

 

Canada's Unequivocal Campaign to Fight Racism and Discrimination

"The Jewish White Supremacist Summit hosted by Apartheid Canada PM, Justin Trudeau, was the brainchild of Irwin Cotler, the Grand Wizard of Zionism in this colony. Notice that he looks like a dick without mkeup, as he spews his bullshit."

"I have a motto: life is too short for shoe 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 Spremaicists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from they will return to being low-voiced bitches of their Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters."

"If you want to understand the psychosis that is Zionism, examining Netanyahu or AIPAC will get you nowhere. You need to read about Holocaust Porn in Israel, to understand how an oppressed people not only emulate their oppressor, but also fetishize their oppressors and oppressing others." 

Laith Marouf, senior consultant, Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC)

"We condemn this unacceptable behaviour by an individual working in an organization dedicated to fighting racism and discrimination."

"Our position is clear -- antisemitism and any form of hate have no place in Canada. That is why I have asked Canadian Heritage to look closely at the situation involving disturbing comments made by the individual in question."

We will address this with the organization accordingly, as this clearly goes against our government's values."

Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Diversity, Inclusion, Canadian Heritage

Hillel Neuer

Meet Laith Marouf, one of Canada’s most vile antisemites. The  government gave him a $133,000 grant to build an “anti-racism strategy” for Canadian broadcasting. That’s like paying Jack the Ripper to run a women’s shelter. Top officials must take responsibility and resign.

 

Actually, the position is not at all clear. Ostensibly Canada prides itself on inclusion and diversity, but it was Heritage Canada under Minister Ahmed Hussen who signed a contract with the Community Media Advocacy Centre to "build an anti-racism strategy" for Canadian broadcasting. Canadian Heritage directed funding to enable the group to fulfill its contract, in the amount of $133,800 and the funds were placed in the capable, trustworthy hands of senior consultant Laith Marouf.

Who, at the time of the contract grant was fairly exuberant, confidently stating that CMAC under his direction is "excited to launch the "Building an Anti-Racism Strategy for Canadian Broadcasting: Conversation & Convergence Initiative". With, of course, funding support from Heritage Canada's anti-racism initiative in commitment to an anti-racism action program. 

Expressing gratitude to "Canadian Heritage for their partnership and trust imposed on me"; and that CMAC commits to "ensuring the successful and responsible execution of the project". With that ironclad guarantee of good fellowship and the embrace of commitment to fighting racism, what could conceivably go wrong?

Ah well, social media tells all in this new age of surprising revelations, unveiling the man behind the smile. All it took was the curiosity of a journalist who thought it might be a good idea to undertake a wee bit of an investigation, something that Heritage Canada with all its staff on assignment on other matters felt too inconsequential to bother with, before signing a contract with a group whose major contribution to fighting discrimination would have been pushing back against "Islamophobia".

The Irving Cotler that the contemptful Marouf referred to was of course, the internationally recognized human rights campaigner and a former Liberal Minister more recently appointed as Canada's special envoy on antisemitism. Marouf's venomous reference to "loud-mouthed bags of human feces", stated Mr. Cotler, was "beyond the pale", moving him to speak to officials in the Heritage department on combating racism.

Jonathan Kay

Oh hi @HonAhmedHussen. Please find enclosed four images that will help you with the investigative "probe" of government-paid anti-racism consultant Laith Marouf