Fighting Racism with Racism

"In response to the Canadian government cutting anti-racism funding for an organization whose co-founder has a history of antisemitic tweets, The Lawfare Project, in partnership with RE-LAW LLP, just submitted a FOIA request to find out why the Department of Canadian Heritage worked with this organization."

"The Community Media Advocacy Centre received $133,800 from the Department of Canadian Heritage, according to Housing, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen. The funding, which was meant for an anti-racism strategy for Canadian broadcasting, went to an organization whose senior consultant, Laith Marouf, made antisemitic comments."

"Justin Trudeau's government said it will take steps to ensure this does not happen again. However, The Lawfare Project is seeking to find out how this happened in the first place."

"The Lawfare Project has requested copies of all communications between the government and the Community Media Advocacy Centre and/or Marouf. The organization also requested copies of all documents — including briefing notes, reports, memos, media lines, and communications — relating to the Community Media Advocacy Centre."

"The purpose of the FOIA request is to compel the government to disclose key documents and communications that should uncover how they came to form this absurd partnership, when they discovered Marouf’s virulent antisemitic views, and why this was discovered only after contracts were signed, funds were disbursed, and some of CMAC’s programs and projects took place."

 

"The FOIA request is an important step to find out how Canadian taxpayer money could have funded Jew-hatred. It is unacceptable to say that this merely slipped through the cracks. We are determined to investigate exactly how the Department of Canadian Heritage funded this organization."

"How can people trust a system that provides anti-racism funding to racists themselves? Jewish Canadians should not have to worry about whether or not their taxpayer money is going directly to fund conspiracy theories."

Brooke Goldstein, Founder and Executive Director, The Lawfare Project 

Housing, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen has asked Canadian Heritage to 'look closely at the situation' in response to what he called 'unacceptable behaviour' by Laith Marouf, a senior consultant involved in a government-funded project to combat racism in broadcasting. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

 

The strange carelessness and oblivion of the current Liberal-led government of Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau which goes into overdrive when a citizen uses crude language to address his frustration with the mandates and misappropriation of government funds along with excessive taxes reflecting this government's fixation on destroying Western Canada's industries revolving around its natural energy resources, feigning outrage that a Cabinet minister would be met with hostility was used as a devious move to distract the attention of the public from yet another government outrageous stumble. 

 

A well-known user of social media who aims spitefully insulting comments at minority groups, at Western governments, at Blacks and Indigenous peoples, and above all, at venting venom at Jews and the state of Israel, inveigled his way as a professional communicator into various places of trust, coming away with hefty contracts from a number of government ministries. The man, a racist whose bigotry encompassed a wide range of victims, was hired by Heritage Canada to operate a number of training sessions for Canadian media on anti-racism.

 

Any reasonable onlooker might feel it should be standard procedure when handing out lucrative contracts to those posing as professional communicators to deduce through an internet search of social media what his qualifications might be and whether the candidate has a clean record on what he claimed to be anti-racism credentials. None, apparently did. The contract from Heritage Canada was launched in May and at his first session, Laith Marouf, (the founder and principal communicator and sole employee of the profesional group he established -- Community Media Advocacy Centre -- aside from his wife), began his first lecture with a scathing attack on Jews and on 'apartheid' Israel.

 

It took a casual search by a telecommunications consultant to discover an unfolding situation, where a serial social media poster of vile racist commentary to reveal the man's background with the foreground of a government-of-Canada-sponsored program on anti-racism. The absurdity of this sordid connection could be lost on no unbiased mind. A Liberal Member of Parliament Antony Housefather, become aware of the situation with this man and spoke to his ministerial colleague, MP Ahmed Hussen, warning him that the man he had publicly praised and co-signed a contract with was a racist. To no avail.

 

Finally, when the story broke and was reported in the news, Minister Hussen was appalled, stating the government mantra that "anti-semitism has no place in Canada", and that he intended to demand an explanation from the Community Media Advocacy Centre, why it had hired a racist as a senior consultant. This, from a senior government minister who had earlier praised the man stating how proud his government was to launch such a program with the estimable assistance of the consultant, beaming beside him in a public announcement.

 

The Lawfare Project has launched an investigation, requesting information from the government of Canada through a freedom of information request. The investigation is to take place with the partnership of RE-LAW LLP, a Toronto law firm. This is what David Elmaleh, a partner at RE-LAW had to say:

"The government's use of taxpayer funds in this instance is particularly concerning. We are pleased to be assisting the Lawfare Project in its quest to bring these issues of vital public importance into the public domain. The public deserves to know what transpired, and why."

 

The Lawfare Project was founded for the express purpose of bringing justice into the environment of racial denigration of Jews in general and vilification of the State of Israel in particular. And they have been fairly busy. Through the unflaggng work of its executive director, human rights lawyer Brooke Goldstein, they have been "defending the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and fighting discrimination wherever we see it".

 

In the current and growing atmosphere of antisemitism, the Lawfare Project saw Kuwait Airways terminate half of its American operations and inter-European flight routes as a result of its discrimination practised on Israeli passport-holders. Corporations have been stopped from implementing BDS policies through counselling on the legal implications of discriminatory commercial conduct. The U.S. Congress has agreed to hold the United Nations to account for its ongoing promotion and inciting of violent radicalization in Palestinian children through UNRWA refugee camps.

 

Palestinian youths hold weapons during a military-style graduation ceremony after being trained at one of the Hamas-run Liberation Camps in Gaza City in 2015.(Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

 

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.