Feds probe 'disturbing' tweets by consultant on government-funded anti-racism project

The_Foxer

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"unacceptable behaviour" by Laith Marouf, a senior consultant involved in the government-funded project to combat racism
One tweet said: "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 thier (sic) Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters."
Sigh. You had ONE JOB Laith.... ONE JOB!
 

spaminator

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Feds cut funding for anti-racism project over 'reprehensible and vile' tweets
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:Aug 22, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 1 minute read • 53 Comments

OTTAWA — Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen says the government has cut funding to an anti-racism project over “reprehensible and vile” tweets by a senior consultant involved in the strategy.


Hussen says the project helmed by the Community Media Advocacy Centre — which received $133,000 from the Heritage Department — has been suspended.

The move follows reporting by The Canadian Press on tweets sent by Laith Marouf, a senior consultant on the project to build an anti-racism strategy for Canadian broadcasting.

Hussen described the tweets as “antisemitic” and called on the centre to explain how they hired Marouf and how they plan on rectifying the situation.

Marouf’s lawyer draws a distinction between his client’s tweets about people he calls “Jewish white supremacists” and Jews in general, saying Marouf harbours no animus toward the Jewish faith as a collective group.

The centre’s project received funding from the Heritage Department’s anti-racism action program and the diversity minister was quoted alongside Marouf in a news release about its launch last year.

A screenshot of one of Marouf’s tweets reads, “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 thier (sic) Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters.”
 
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spaminator

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Firing anti-racism group took too long given trainer's racist comments
Author of the article:Brian Lilley
Publishing date:Aug 22, 2022 • 7 hours ago • 3 minute read • 19 Comments
It took longer than it should have, but the Trudeau government has finally fired a not-for-profit hired to do anti-racism training over racist comments.

It took longer than it should have, but the Trudeau government has finally fired a not-for-profit hired to do anti-racism training over racist comments.


At noon Monday, Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen tweeted out that he was cutting the funding from the Community Media Advocacy Centre.

The Montreal based group received a $133,822 grant last September for a program called Building an Anti-Racism Strategy for Canadian Broadcasting. It had already held workshops in Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax with events still scheduled for Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa.

A major problem, though, were the comments from the man leading these sessions, Laith Marouf. He has called “Jewish White Supremacists” “bags of human feces,” said that French is an ugly language, and that “Frogs have much less IQ.” He once called Colin Powell the “Jamaican house slave of the Empire.”

Marouf’s lawyer said that Marouf does not have “any animus toward the Jewish faith as a collective group” and said his tweets made a clear distinction between “Jewish White Supremacists” and Jews in general. But that explanation is difficult to accept.


That’s not the kind of person who should be lecturing another human being on racism.

“The anti-Semitic comments made by Laith Marouf are reprehensible and vile,” Hussen said in a statement.

“We have provided notice to the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) that their funding has been cut and their project has been suspended.”

Hussen called on CMAC to explain how they came to hire Marouf, given that the group is supposed to be about fighting racism and hate while Marouf’s comments were “anti-Semitic and xenophobic.” The minister should be pushing CMAC to answer those questions, but he has to answer many himself.

How did this group and Marouf get funding in the first place?

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How could Hussen end up being quoted in an April press release with Marouf when a simple search would have turned up many of his vile comments?


Will anyone be held accountable for this?

We used to have ministerial accountability in our government; ministers would resign when their departments messed up. There’s no doubt that the government did mess up, not just Hussen’s department, but also Canadian Heritage which approved the grant.

Speaking to government insiders to get a sense of how this came to be shows a series of missteps across four different ministers, two departments and many months. The grant was approved last September as Canada was in the middle of a federal election.

The grant had been making its way through the system at Heritage Canada which was then overseen by then-minister Steven Guilbeault. While the grant was funded by Heritage, it was handed out by the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Youth which at that time was Bardish Chagger.


By the time the government got around to actually handing out the money and making and making an announcement, Pablo Rodriguez was the minister at Heritage and Hussen had taken over the diversity file. It appears that the vetting process wasn’t fully followed because the people in charge assumed others had or would do the vetting required.

On the one hand, I am tempted to cut the government some slack because their contract was with CMAC, not Larouf, but he’s been with them for years. This was not a new hire; he’s featured on their website and was likely central to their application.

According to government sources, had the contract been directly with Marouf, he could have been fired immediately. Since the contract was with CMAC, the government had legal advice they had to follow before the contract could be terminated.

There is now an internal review to see how this happened, and the government is looking at their options, including whether any funding can be recovered from the group.

They should be reviewing the entire anti-racism training industry they are supporting. As I’ve written previously, it appears to a sham.

It took the Trudeau government longer than it should have to fix their mistake, but at least they are fixing it.
 
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The_Foxer

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"anti-racism" groups are often just a hiding place for the most racist to hide to cover their nature. Just as many of the 'anti-facists' behave in a very fascist manner. There's a reason the phrase 'wolf in sheep's clothing' persists - it's a time honoured tactic.
 

Tecumsehsbones

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"anti-racism" groups are often just a hiding place for the most racist to hide to cover their nature. Just as many of the 'anti-facists' behave in a very fascist manner. There's a reason the phrase 'wolf in sheep's clothing' persists - it's a time honoured tactic.
I've been saying for a while that the political spectrum isn't a line, it's a horseshoe, with the two extreme ends much closer to each other than either is to the center.
 

spaminator

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MPs question month-long delay in ending CMAC funding after 'vile' tweets flagged
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:Oct 07, 2022 • 15 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation

OTTAWA — Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen says he wishes he had been able to move more quickly to end the federal government’s ties to the Community Media Advocacy Centre after a Liberal caucus colleague first raised concerns about the group this summer.


The House of Commons heritage committee is studying the organization’s funding agreement with the Heritage Department after it was revealed that its senior consultant posted a series of tweets about “Jewish white supremacists.”


The federal government cut off funding to the group, which was overseeing an anti-racism project, after the tweets from Laith Marouf came to light in August.


Hussen told the committee Friday that Liberal MP Anthony Housefather first shared his concerns about the organization with him on July 19 or 20 and that his office immediately asked the Heritage Department to review the project funding details and keep it in the loop on next steps.

Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman noted to the committee that the decision to end the funding was more than a month after Housefather informed Hussen’s office about “Mr. Marouf’s vile antisemitism.”


Hussen insisted he did act immediately, but the process took time.

Hussen says the funding was approved before he became minister and he trusted that proper vetting was done, but now he’s promising to strengthen the process for funding projects.

Marouf’s Twitter account is private, but a screenshot posted online showed a number of tweets with his photo and name.

One tweet said: “You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, a.k.a. 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 thier (sic) Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters.”

This summer, a lawyer acting for Marouf asked for his client’s tweets to be quoted “verbatim” and distinguished between Marouf’s “clear reference to ‘Jewish white supremacists”‘ and Jews or Jewish people in general.


Marouf does not harbour “any animus toward the Jewish faith as a collective group,” lawyer Stephen Ellis said in an August email to The Canadian Press.

“While not the most artfully expressed, the tweets reflect a frustration with the reality of Israeli apartheid and a Canadian government which collaborates with it,” Ellis added.

In August, Hussen cut $133,000 in Heritage Department funding to CMAC after a public statement about what he called the “reprehensible and vile” tweets. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was launching a complete government review of funding to CMAC.

But asked why his office did not act sooner, Hussen said Friday he wanted to consult the legal department and follow the proper process to cut off funding and end the anti-racism project.


“We had obviously much less information (in July) than we do today,” he added, but he did not respond when pressed to explain what he did not know at the time of Housefather’s complaint.

Hussen told the committee that new conditions will be added to all federal funding agreements that allow the government to take action if an organization or person is found to have “promoted or shared hate, racism, antisemitism, or discrimination in any form.”

Any organization that has its funding cut off will never be eligible for future funding agreements.

Hussen told the committee there will be a renewed and reformed anti-racism strategy, informed by communities including those “that have been attacked by Mr. Marouf directly.”
 
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Jinentonix

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"Hussen told the committee that new conditions will be added to all federal funding agreements that allow the government to take action if an organization or person is found to have “promoted or shared hate, racism, antisemitism, or discrimination in any form.”

Yeah right. If that's truly going to be the case then we should be able to look forward to Socks "Blackface" McGroper having his pay suspended.
 

Ron in Regina

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As we all know, because the Trudeau government constantly reminds us, that it is appalled by displays of anti-Semitism and works vigorously to condemn them Immediately.
Except that’s not what the testimony of Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage revealed Friday. Whoopsies!

OTTAWA—Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen says he assumed the proper vetting of a government grant to an organization whose consultant had a history of tweeting antisemitic remarks had been completed by the time he took on his current role. Guess again Ahmed.

The minister said Liberal MP Anthony Housefather initially shared Marouf’s social media posts with him on July 19 or 20….So he waited a full month to see if he could ignore this but…it came out…so…

His first public statement on the controversy was issued Aug. 21, when he called the tweets “reprehensible and vile.” He announced he had cut funding to CMAC the next day.

Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen says he “wishes he had been able to move more quickly to end the federal government’s ties to the Community Media Advocacy Centre” after a Liberal caucus colleague first raised concerns about the group this summer.

Hussen took on the diversity file, a portfolio previously held by Bardish Chagger (Minister of Excuses) in October 2021.
(‘Cuz it’s 2015-ish, & Hussen must have been much more diverse than Chagger)
1665346340624.jpeg
 

Ron in Regina

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"anti-racism" groups are often just a hiding place for the most racist to hide to cover their nature. Just as many of the 'anti-facists' behave in a very fascist manner. There's a reason the phrase 'wolf in sheep's clothing' persists - it's a time honoured tactic.
I've been saying for a while that the political spectrum isn't a line, it's a horseshoe, with the two extreme ends much closer to each other than either is to the center.
As we all know, because the Trudeau government constantly reminds us, that it is appalled by displays of anti-Semitism and works vigorously to condemn them Immediately.
"Hussen told the committee that new conditions will be added to all federal funding agreements that allow the government to take action if an organization or person is found to have “promoted or shared hate, racism, antisemitism, or discrimination in any form.”

Yeah right. If that's truly going to be the case then we should be able to look forward to Socks "Blackface" McGroper having his pay suspended.
Once is a mistake. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.
 
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Ron in Regina

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The “National Action Plan on Combatting Hate” doesn’t exist yet. Whenever it is released, you may see ministers on the culture portfolio boast of the public consultations that helped shape it. If that happens, don’t take them at their word.

Back in April, Canadian Heritage ran online consultations for a future “National Action Plan on Combatting Hate” that could introduce anti-hate laws and curb freedom of expression. While the department publicly encouraged “every person in Canada” to participate in a survey about what this plan should include, email records show that people were screened out if they believed that an anti-hate plan wasn’t needed at all.

Canadian Heritage didn’t really consult the public on this matter — it consulted anyone who agreed with the Liberal platform point to create a National Action Plan on Combatting Hate. It’s yet another example of a government department being used to effect partisan goals and manufacture consent for something the public might not actually want.

While the Liberals and Canadian Heritage have kept their descriptions of the future anti-hate plan vague, the survey conducted in April gave hints. Those who passed a screening question could make suggestions about what they thought should be a priority for government: national anti-hate education campaigns, increasing media representation for communities affected by hate and supporting new technology to help communities monitor hate.

Suggestions could also be made for an “Anti-Racism law,” a law to make traditional and social media “follow standards that reject hate” and a law to “add people or groups who fund, help, or take part in white supremacist activities to a formal list of white supremacist groups.” (‘Cuz we all know that only Whites are Racists, so…?)

These suggestions can understandably be met with concern because Liberals tend to define “hate” very broadly — and if media and society were required to tiptoe around “hate” (which could include anything from serious hate speech to mild disagreements about political issues), this would impact our freedom of expression.


Similarly, “white supremacy” is traditionally understood as violent, evil and KKK-esque — but the federal government has, previously, stretched this to include less obvious “structural” white supremacy, which is expressed “through our governments, education systems, food systems.” When societal evils are construed this broadly, anyone can be guilty, etc…Kick’n it Liberal-Style!!!
 

Tecumsehsbones

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We hate the hate.
Way back in the '60s, comedian pianist/songwriter (and professor of math at Harvard) Tom Lehrer wrote a song called National Brotherhood Week, which he introduced by saying "There are still people who do not tolerate others, and I HATE people like that!"

His stuff is pretty dated, but still funny. Probably on YouTube (everything else is).