Heritage minister condemns ‘disgusting’ tweets from anti-racism group consultant – National
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez broke his silence on Wednesday over his division’s funding of an company whose senior advisor posted a collection of tweets about “Jewish white supremacists,” greater than every week after the federal government reduce off the cash.
“Racism in any kind has no place in Canada. I condemn the disgusting anti-Semitic feedback made by Laith Marouf,” Rodriguez stated in a written assertion to The Canadian Press.
“I’ve no tolerance for this.”
Rodriguez additionally stated the Group Media Advocacy Centre, which Marouf works for as a advisor, ought to by no means have obtained “a cent of taxpayer {dollars}” and the Liberal authorities is reviewing the vetting course of to make sure it doesn’t occur once more.
His remarks mirror these of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who on Tuesday stated he was launching an entire authorities evaluate of funding to CMAC.
“It’s completely unacceptable that federal {dollars} have gone to this group that has demonstrated xenophobia, racism and antisemitism,” Trudeau stated.
Final week, Range Minister Ahmed Hussen reduce $133,000 in Heritage Division funding to the CMAC and suspended an anti-racism venture it was overseeing after “reprehensible and vile” tweets posted by Marouf got here to mild.
On Monday, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who’s Jewish, posted a tweet urging all 338 members of Parliament to sentence antisemitism, after which a major variety of Liberal MPs started talking up in regards to the problem.
Rodriguez had not commented till the assertion despatched Wednesday.
Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, who can also be Jewish, had criticized Rodriguez for not talking out in regards to the tweets.
“Essentially the most vile factor about that is the silence,” she stated.
Marouf’s Twitter account is personal, however a screenshot posted on-line confirmed numerous tweets along with his picture and identify.
One tweet stated: “You understand all these loud mouthed luggage of human feces, a.okay.a. the Jewish White Supremacists; after we liberate Palestine they usually have to return to the place they arrive from, they are going to return to being low voiced bitches of thier (sic) Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters.”
CMAC has not responded to requests for remark. A lawyer appearing for Marouf requested for his shopper’s tweets to be quoted “verbatim” and distinguished between Marouf’s “clear reference to ‘Jewish white supremacists”’ and Jews or Jewish folks normally.
Marouf doesn’t harbour “any animus towards the Jewish religion as a collective group,” lawyer Stephen Ellis stated in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.
“Whereas not essentially the most artfully expressed, the tweets replicate a frustration with the fact of Israeli apartheid and a Canadian authorities which collaborates with it,” Ellis added.
