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The grant of Employment and Social Development
- 18 April 2023
- 9:09 pm
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- 18 April 2023
- 9:09 pm
Deputy CPC leader Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill) relentlessly challenged two Liberal ministers in the House of Commons: “They funded a known antisemite with Canadian tax dollars and hid it for a month until they got caught.”
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Samples of antisemitism in federally financed government programs (4)
In 2018 CMAC /Laith Marouf got a contract for $2882 to work in the Summer Jobs program run by Employment and Social Development Canada’s which offers work experience to people aged 15-30.However, ultimately he got only $795 because, after the funding had been allocated, Marouf made antisemitic comments that are” reprehensible and inconsistent with the objectives of the Canada Summer Jobs program”.
To date, the monies have not been clawed back. Marie Woolf, Trudeau promises complete review of funding anti-racism group after vile’ tweets, Canadian Press, August 30, 2022
The grant of the Department of Heritage to CMAC
The grant in issue is $133,822 for a project titled “Building an anti-Racism strategy for Canadian Broadcasting: Conversation and Convergence which called for a cross-Canada tour to deliver “anti-racism” seminars to Canadian broadcasters.
Sequence of events leading to discovery of Marouf’s vile behaviour.
During the summer of 2021, high tech consultant, lawyer Mark Goldberg complained in blog posts that government funding of Marouf was like ”funding hate”.
Goldberg posted these blogs after Twitter suspended Marouf’s account. Sheldon Kirshner, A Canadian Government Failure, The Blogs, October 23, 2022
In mid-July 2022, upon being informed of the matter by Goldberg, the Jewish Liberal backbencher Anthony Housefather alerted Minister Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion of the facts that Laith Marouf who along with his wife are the sole owners of CMAC which had received the grant in issue, has been writing and spewing reprehensible vile antisemitic, hateful, xenophobic materials, concerning Quebeckers, aboriginal peoples of Canada, Blacks, while he directed most of his putrid narrative to Jews, Israeli Jews and Israel.
Minister Hussen took over a month, until August 19 to respond to Housefather and to address this matter publicly knowing that the press was about to publish the story.
On the other hand, the Prime Minister waited until August 30 to speak about the matter, while Minister Rodriguez whose Department processed CMAC’s application and granted the funds has yet to address the matter publicly.
Curiously enough, Minister Hussen did not initially condemn Marouf’s comments in the strongest possible terms as one would reasonably expect him to do in the circumstances.
Subsequently, he referred to antisemitism in Canada as a mere “reality” despite alarming progressive increases in the number antisemitic incidences and crimes year over year.
The shocking nature of the matter clearly cried out for public inquiry and forensic accounting into the matter of providing a federal grant to someone to teach anti-racism in broadcasting while he freelanced in spreading hate.
Despite the attempts of the government to deep-six the scandal after announcing a number of improvements to the vetting system of the applications, Melissa Lantsman, Conservative MP and Deputy Leader, asked Parliament to have the matter investigated and finally managed to have the matter referred to Parliament’s Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage.
To date, the Committee interviewed Minister Hussen on October 7, 2022 and the Associate Deputy Minister of the Department of Heritage Mrs. Mala Khanna and Charles Slowey, Assistant Deputy Minister for the community and identity sector on February 13, 2023. A substantial portion of the second sitting was wasted away by wrangling along party lines between the members of the committee.
All three witnesses attended the proceedings by videoconference for a predetermined period of time, instead of attending in person. And they should have been required to do.
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The transcripts of the proceedings are accessible through the link CHPC – Home – House of Commons of Canada –Recent Business-Briefing on Canadian Heritage’s Contract with the Community Media Advocacy Centre
Last meeting:: February 13,2023
The first meeting can be accessed by changing the date on the transcript of the second and last meeting.
The excerpts from the meetings presented below focus on the problematic responses of the witnesses.
The testimony of Minister Hussen
The Minister stated: “The fact that the community Media Advocacy Centre received federal funding while employing Mr. Marouf is unacceptable and should, quite frankly, never have happened. The contract with CMAC has since been terminated, and we have sought to recover all payments made to the organization”.
As to the cause of this matter, the Minister blamed the “system”. He stated: “The incident reflects a failure of the system and is a slap in the face of the Jewish community…and for that I sincerely apologise”.
He insisted that the matter was caused by the failure of the vetting system and the handling of the application and went on to describe all the changes that are being made to the vetting system to insure that this does not happen again.
After the Laith Marouf scandal broke, the lobbying arm of Jewish Federations in Canada, CIJA, told supporters, “The government has heard our concerns and is taking the appropriate actions.” But at a Parliamentary committee, Minister Ahmed Hussen skirted giving a direct answer to at least 4 questions. (Image: CIJA)
The following are the exchanges material to the issues at hand:
1. Q. Did no one google Mr. Marouf, his wife or the organization?
A. The Minister did not answer the question.
2. The Minister personally praised Mr. Marouf in a press release (issued on) April 14, 2022 saying “Our government is proud to contribute to this initiative…” (In the press release, Marouf responded by thanking the Minister’s department for “the trust imposed in us”).
Q. I also want to know from the Minister what he was ostensibly proud of?
A. The Minister did not answer the question. Instead, he repeated that “the vetting process in this case failed. Our responsibility is to ensure that this never happens again by introducing new and enhanced robust measures. That’s exactly what we’re doing. Until then, no single dollar will go out. All funding has been paused to make sure that this never happens again.”
True to form, even while on tour delivering anti-racism talks, at a May 14 talk in Vancouver, Marouf spent the first two minutes acknowledging the support of Heritage Canada, telling listeners that the media was governed by “colonialism and racism” and launching into an extended condemnation of “the Zionist apartheid regime,” before accusing Israel of waging a decades-long campaign of “genocide.” Tristin Hopper, op cit.
3. The Minister stated that “he had held the organisation [CMAC] in question to account and asked it to provide him with an update.
Q. What did the Community Advocacy Centre (CMAC) and Laith Marouf say to you when you asked them to provide these accounts….So, you should have expected a response from the agency. Did the agency respond to you? If so, what did they say in response to justify the unacceptable comments that were made?”
A. The Minister did not answer the question. Instead, strangely enough he turned the question to the Associate Deputy Minister of Heritage for the answer although she was not in attendance.
On February 13 when the Associate Deputy Minister of Heritage Mrs. Mala Khanna testified before the Committee, she was not asked the question, obviously because the Minister’s referral made no sense.
4. Q. “Minister, on September 12, you stated in an interview with the National Post that the incident involving Laith Marouf was a system failure. On that date, you announced that a host of measures would be put in place to prevent it from happening again. Reading these measures would be put in place to prevent it from happening again. Reading these measures, one thinks that common sense would dictate that they should already have been in place, especially for the implementation of a program like the one you wanted to put in place at the time with Mr. Marouf’s company.
A. The Minister did not respond.
5. Q. What measures were in place before this incident? How was due diligence carried out on companies that were entrusted with large sums of public money to go and provide training on such sensitive issues as anti-racism or anti-Semitism?”
A. The Minister replied: “My expectation was that the measures in place at that time would have included robust vetting and due diligence measures and steps to ensure that this individual and organization would not go through the cracks.”
(To be cont’d)
Doğan D. Akman is an independent researcher and commentator. He holds a B.Sc. in sociology, an M.A. in sociology/criminology and an LL.B in law. He held academic appointments in sociology, criminology and social policy; served as a Judge of the Provincial Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, and occupied the positions of Crown Counsel in criminal prosecutions and in civil litigation at the Federal Department of Justice. His academic work is published in peer-reviewed professional journals, while his opinion pieces and other writings are to be found in various publications and in blogs.
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
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