Canadian Government Cuts Funding for Anti-Racism Group Over Consultant’s Antisemitic Social Media Posts

The Canadian government has cut funding for an anti-racism organization and suspended a program it was running after past antisemitic social media posts published by a senior consultant to the group, Laith Marouf, came to light, the CBC reported on Monday.

“Antisemitism has no place in this country,” Canadian Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen stated. “The antisemitic comments made by Laith Marouf are reprehensible and vile. We have provided notice to the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) that their funding has been cut and their project has been suspended.”

“We call on CMAC, an organization claiming to fight racism and hate in Canada to answer to how they came to hire Laith Marouf, and how they plan on rectifying the situation given the nature of his antisemitic and xenophobic comments,” he added. “We look forward to a proper response on their next steps and clear accountability regarding this matter.”

Update by the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion on the status of the Community Media Advocacy Centre project. pic.twitter.com/LPqMsv3hQP

— Ahmed Hussen (@HonAhmedHussen) August 22, 2022

The CMAC received a $133,800 grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage last year for a project titled “Building an Anti-Racism Strategy for Canadian Broadcasting: Conversation and Convergence.”

In one of his problematic social media posts that were uncovered, Marouf tweeted, “You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from, they will return to being low voiced bitches of [their] Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters.”

He also called Canadian Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism Irwin Cotler, a Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Advisory Board member, “the Grand Wizard of Zionism in this Colony [Canada],” and spoke of what he described as “Holocaust porn” in Israel.

Marouf’s lawyer, Stephen Ellis, claimed his client did not harbor “any animus toward the Jewish faith as a collective group.”

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) President and CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel stated, “No organization that employs or gives a platform to individuals with a history of racist, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ2+, or violent beliefs should receive funding from the Canadian government.”

“We are gratified that Minister Hussen has cut the funding for CMAC and suspended the program and look forward to results of the investigation into how the funds were allocated in the first place and how they plan to avoid such errors in future,” he concluded.

We are gratified that Min @HonAhmedHussen has cut $ for CMAC & suspended the program.⁰⁰The Min also committed to undertaking a review of all procedures related to program funding & establishing new protocols to ensure this situation doesn’t repeat itself in the future. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/E6NTlxUAV3

— CIJA (@CIJAinfo) August 22, 2022

B’nai Brith Canada commented, “B’nai Brith Canada quietly collaborated with members of the federal government on the issue of outed antisemite Laith Marouf. We are encouraged to see that he will no longer be able to access government funding to help him spew his hateful rhetoric.”

B’nai Brith Canada quietly collaborated with members of the federal government on the issue of outed antisemite Laith Marouf. We are encouraged to see that he will no longer be able to access government funding to help him spew his hateful rhetoric. #cdnpoli #antisemitism pic.twitter.com/NGgqCDkvMQ

— B’nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) August 22, 2022