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