A Government in Disgrace Still Playing to Its Preferred Audience

"Canada continues to be deeply concerned by the dire humanitarian situation in Syria. The Syrian peoples’ needs have reached unprecedented levels after 13 years of crisis, with over 16 million people, almost 70% of the country’s population, urgently requiring assistance."

"The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, accompanied by Omar Alghabra, Member of Parliament for Mississauga Centre, recently concluded a visit to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, where they met with government officials and representatives of organizations and partners to discuss international cooperation and humanitarian assistance, particularly in relation to Syria. Minister Hussen’s trip marks the first Canadian delegation to visit the border region of Türkiye and Syria since the end of the Assad regime in Syria."

"Minister Hussen reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to the people of Syria and announced $17.25 million in funding for humanitarian assistance to address their urgent needs. Canada’s funding will be delivered through experienced humanitarian partners and help provide clean water and food; protection services, including for the prevention and mitigation of and response to gender-based violence; sanitation and hygiene services; and health services."

"In Qatar, Minister Hussen and Mr. Alghabra met with Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al-Misnad, Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation. Discussions focussed [sic] on Qatar’s role in assisting Syrians and on development cooperation between Canada and Qatar."

Global Affairs Canada news release

“The conflict in Syria has left millions of people in need of urgent aid. This funding will allow partners to provide them with critical support as the situation on the ground continues to evolve. Canada stands in solidarity with the people of Syria and those in neighbouring countries affected by this humanitarian crisis, and we will continue to work to address its impacts.”

- Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development

“This is a pivotal moment for Syria, the region and the world. After decades of oppression and conflict, the Syrian people are facing an opportunity to build an inclusive and prosperous society. Canada has always been a friend to the Syrian people, and we will continue to offer support to them so they can achieve their aspirations.”

- Omar Alghabra, Member of Parliament for Mississauga Centre

Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen has returned from a visit to Turkey's border with Syria, where he says Syrian refugees told him they are grateful for Canada's support. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau is in a precarious governing position, heading toward electoral oblivion. Justin Trudeau's formal announcement that he is stepping down as prime minister of Canada and his follow-up tactics of remaining in power until March through prorogation of Parliament has placed Canada in a vulnerable situation where government authority is absent authority under these circumstances. Yet he and his minions continue to act unimpeded by their reality of a caretaker government unentitled to continue as though they hold a mandate to do so.

Canadians have made it clear that their disgust with this prime minister's behaviour and decision-making has made them anxious to see him depart, with his replacement waiting in the wings. An election is also waiting in the wings where the Conservative Party is prepared to take the reins of government at the behest of the Canadian electorate prepared to give Pierre Poilievre a clear majority government and consign the Liberal Party to fourth-place standing and unlikely to capture more than 6 seats in Parliament.

Despite the loathing of the Canadian electorate for the worst government that Canada has ever suffered under, one that has brought economic ruin to the country, divided east from west, fractured unity not only provincially but by ethnic origins, each in their distrusting and abused silos, with runaway crime going unabated, soaring deaths from contraband opioids, a failing health care system where it has become logical somehow to offer sufferers medical 'assistance' in suicide, and people requiring urgent medical care dying while waiting for vital surgery, nothing appears to have curtailed the arrogance of a prime minister who sneers at those he is meant to serve, who disagree with his policies.

That International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen and MP Omar Alghabra have just completed a formal delegation to Turkey and Syria in the wake of a transitional regime since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the butcher of Damascus whose 13-year sectarian war against his opposition citizens, where the new government is being led by an offshoot of al-Qaeda prepared to bring Sharia law to the country, is of little interest to Canada. Other than perhaps the 100,000 Syrian refugees the Trudeau government gave haven to. Millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey and throughout Europe are facing an enforced repatriation to Syria. No whisper of similar action in Canada.

$17.25 million in funding for humanitarian assistance; food, protection services, sanitation and health services, courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer has been given to Syria. Little different than offering millions to the Taliban in Afghanistan, which has taken up where it left off before the U.S. led NATO in a conflict to rescue Afghans from the Islamist talons of the Taliban and the capture of Osama bin Laden, after the tragedy of 9/11. Israel's 7/10 atrocities imposed by the Hamas terrorist group elicited a yawn from Trudeau and a ban on providing Israel with military gear in its invasion response of Gaza.

In Qatar the two Canadian Parliamentarians of Islamic heritage met with Qatar officials, as intermediaries in assisting Syria. Qatar, the friendly oil-rich state to the Taliban, and Hamas, whose funding of Hamas ensured it could assemble a military stockpile of deadly rocketry, hundreds of which have been aimed at Israel from the past to the present. Synchronizing with the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar has infiltrated its brand of jihad discretely and effectively throughout Europe and North America. Is this where Canada's interests lie?

Hussen announced that Canada stands in solidarity with the people of Syria and those in neighbouring countries; that 'his' government is prepared to continue work to address the impacts of conflicts roiling the Middle East. Unspoken is the absence of Israel's welfare in this current Canadian government's concerns over the situation in the Middle East; the very nation that has been continually attacked and forced to respond in kind, but whose responses fail to find favour or support within the hallowed halls of Parliament under this Liberal government.

While Europe and the United States remain concerned over the Islamist factions in partnership with al-Qaeda of those insurgents now governing Syria on an 'interim' basis, Canada appears to have no such troubling concerns under the Liberal government's 'watchful' eye, focused unerringly on the impression it is making on the large Canadian-Muslim population that has swelled in the past ten years, under Liberal/Trudeau governance.

Power & Politics hears from Syrian-Canadian MP Omar Alghabra on the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. CBC

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