OTTAWA-
Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen has ordered the government to cut funding for an anti-racism initiative due to “reprehensible and despicable” tweets by a senior consultant on the project.
Hussen announced on Monday that the initiative run by the Community Media Advocacy Center – which received more than $133,000 from the Department of Heritage – has been put on hold.
The move follows a Canadian Press report on tweets posted on the account of Laith Marouf, senior consultant on the project to develop an anti-racism strategy for Canadian broadcasting.
One tweet read: “You all know those loud bags of human excrement aka Jewish white supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they came from, they will again be whispered bitches of their (sic) Christian/secular white supremacist masters.
Hussen said in a statement that “anti-Semitism has no place in this country.”
“We have notified the Community Media Advocacy Center (CMAC) that their funding has been cut and their project has been put on hold,” he said.
“We are asking CMAC, an organization that claims to fight racism and hate in Canada, to respond on how they hired Laith Marouf, and how they plan to rectify the situation given the nature of his anti-Semitic comments and xenophobes.
In April, Hussen was quoted alongside Marouf in a press release announcing the project, titled “Building an Anti-Racism Strategy for Canadian Broadcasting: Conversation and Convergence.”
The project included consultative events across Canada, some of which were to take place later this year, including in Ottawa.
Marouf declined requests for comment. His attorney Stephen Ellis drew 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. .
“While not the most astutely worded, the tweets reflect a frustration with the reality of Israeli apartheid and a Canadian government collaborating with it,” Ellis said Monday.
“Apartheid is a crime against humanity under international law and no amount of twisting at the hands of the Zionists can obscure this fundamental fact. Canada should be ashamed.
The CMAC, which describes itself as a nonprofit organization supporting self-determination in media through research, relationship building, advocacy and learning, did not respond to requests for comment.
Hussen’s office said heritage funding for the CMAC’s anti-racism project was approved before he became diversity minister last fall.
Arevig Afarian, a spokesman for Hussen, said on Monday that “this should have been identified as an issue in the early stages, even before funding was approved.”
“Minister Hussen 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 applicants for funding, including anyone they employ or with who they associate with,” she said. .
Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications consultant, said he followed Marouf on Twitter and took screenshots of his tweets before complaining to the social network. Goldberg said Twitter locked Marouf’s account as well as a subsequent account 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 Empire’s Jamaican house slave who extinguished the lives of millions with his lies, died a painful death unable to breathe (sic). If there was anything good to come out of this pandemic, it would be his death on the birthday of the Prophet of Islam,” he said.
Another tweet captured from the screen read: “I have a motto: life is too short for lace-up shoes, or to entertain Jewish white supremacists with anything other than a bullet to the head.
Yet another read: “lol, I think frogs have a lot less IQ than 77, and French is an ugly language.”
Goldberg called for responses 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. “The Parliamentary Heritage Committee has a lot to investigate if it wants to.”
Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and CEO of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, spoke to Hussen on Monday about the government’s endorsement of the CMAC program.
He said during the discussion that the minister was committed to “undertaking a comprehensive review of all procedures related to program funding and establishing a new set of protocols that will ensure this situation does not happen again. in the future”.
“No organization that employs or provides a platform for people with a history of racist, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ+ or violent beliefs should receive funding from the Canadian government,” he said.
Bernie Faber, president of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, which sits on a panel on online hate appointed by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, was among those calling on the government to withdraw its support for the project.
Faber said Hussen “should be commended for his swift and decisive action”.
However, he added that the problem remains as to how Marouf was hired in the first place.
“In an age of instant information, surely someone has not gone through the process. A full review and then a report to the public is necessary.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 22, 2022.