OTTAWA –
Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen has ordered the government to cut funding for an anti-racism initiative because of “reprehensible and vile” tweets by a senior consultant on the project.
Hussen announced Monday that the initiative run by the Community Media Advocacy Center — which received more than $133,000 from the Heritage Department — has been suspended.
The move follows a Canadian press report on tweets posted to the account of Laith Marouf, a senior consultant on the project to build an anti-racism strategy for Canadian broadcasting.
One tweet read: “You know all those loudmouthed bags of human excrement known as Jewish white supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back where they came from, they will go back to being silent whores of their Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters.”
Hussen said in a statement that “anti-Semitism has no place in this country.”
“We have given notice to the Community Media Advocacy Center (CMAC) that their funding has been cut and their project has been suspended,” he said.
“We call on CMAC, an organization that claims to fight racism and hate in Canada, to answer how they came to hire Laith Marouf and how they plan to remedy the situation given the nature of his anti-Semitic and xenophobic comments.”
In April, Hussen was quoted alongside Marouf in a press release announcing the project, titled “Building an Anti-Racist Strategy for Canadian Broadcasting: Conversation and Convergence.”
The project included consultation events across Canada, some of which will be held later this year, including in Ottawa.
Marouf declined requests for comment. His lawyer Stephen Ellis has drawn a distinction between his client’s tweets about people he calls “Jewish white supremacists” and Jews in general, saying Marouf has no animosity toward the Jewish faith as a collective group.
“Although not artfully expressed, the tweets reflect a frustration with the reality of Israeli apartheid and a Canadian government that cooperates with it,” Ellis said Monday.
“Apartheid is a crime against humanity under international law and no amount of Zionist violence can obscure this fundamental fact. Canada should be ashamed.”
CMAC, which describes itself as a nonprofit organization that supports self-determination in media through research, relationship building, advocacy and learning, did not respond to requests for comment.
Hussen’s office said Heritage’s funding for the CMAC anti-racism project was approved before he became diversity minister last fall.
Arevig Afarian, a spokeswoman for Hussen, said Monday that “this should have been identified as a problem at an earlier stage, before the funding was approved.”
“Minister Hussen has asked the Department of Canadian Heritage how this could have happened in the first place, and to seek immediate solutions when it comes to properly vetting funding applicants, including any individuals they employ or partner with. to”, she said. .
Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications consultant, said he followed Marouf on Twitter and took screenshots of his tweets before complaining to the social media network. Goldberg said Twitter blocked Marouf’s account, as well as another he created. Twitter declined a request for comment.
In one of Goldberg’s screenshots, a tweet posted on Marouf’s account commented on the death of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
“Colin Powell, the Jamaican slave of the Empire who snuffed out the lives of millions with his lies, died a painful death of not being able to breathe (sic). If there was any good that would come from this pandemic, it would be his death on the birthday of the prophet of Islam,” the announcement said.
Another screenshot on Twitter read: “I have a motto: Life is too short for shoelaces, or to entertain Jewish white supremacists with anything other than a bullet to the head.”
Another wrote: “lol I think frogs have a much lower IQ than 77, and French is an ugly language.”
Goldberg called for a response from the federal government.
“It’s never too late to do the right thing, but there are so many questions about how the program got here,” he said. “There is a lot for the parliamentary heritage committee to investigate if it decides.”
Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and CEO of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, spoke Monday with Hussen about the government’s approval of the CMAC program.
He said in the discussion that the minister had pledged to “undertake a comprehensive review of all procedures related to the funding of the program and establish a new set of protocols that will ensure that this situation does not recur in the future.”
“No organization that employs or gives a platform to individuals with a history of racist, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ+ or violent beliefs should receive funding from the Canadian government,” he said.
Bernie Faber, chair of the Canadian Network Against Hate, which sits on a panel on online hate appointed by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, has been among those calling for the government to withdraw support for the project.
Faber said Hussen “should be commended for his swift and decisive action”.
However, he added that the question remains how Marouf was hired in the first place.
“In an age of instant information, surely someone has not followed the process. A full review and then public reporting is needed.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 22, 2022.
