Liberals turf former imam’s candidacy over 'anti-Semitic' comments in Montreal riding

spaminator

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,867
3,042
113
Liberals turf former imam’s candidacy over 'anti-Semitic' comments in Montreal riding
Postmedia News
Published:
August 30, 2019
Updated:
August 30, 2019 7:21 PM EDT
Imam Hassan Guillet arrives at a gathering at the Pavillon de la Jeunesse, marking the first anniversary of the mosque shooting, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018 in Quebec City. Jacques Boissinot / THE CANADIAN PRESS
A prominent Liberal candidate previously slated to run in a Montreal riding has been turfed after an advocacy group drew attention to the man’s past remarks.
Hassan Guillet, a former imam, generated international media attention when he gave a well-received address at a funeral service for victims of the Montreal mosque massacre. But some of his other previous remarks caught the eye of B’nai Brith Canada, a leading Jewish advocacy group.
The organization released a statement on Friday calling on the federal Liberals to disqualify Guillet from running in the riding of Saint-Leonard—Saint-Michel for what they described as “a pattern of disturbing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements.”
Criticism quickly came flooding in. “Justin Trudeau has hand-picked a candidate who called for the dissolution of Israel and praised the actions of a Hamas activist,” said Peter Kent, Conservative MP and Thornhill candidate, in a statement.
But several hours after B’nai Brith’s release, the Liberals issued a statement that Guillet’s candidacy had been revoked. “The insensitive comments made by Hassan Guillet are not aligned with the values of the Liberal Party of Canada”. Although the release said this came after an internal review process that had been going on for several weeks.
The riding is considered a Liberal stronghold that the party has held for decades.
"We applaud the swift reaction by the Liberal Party to the deplorable comments of Mr. Guillet following our public release earlier," said @MichaelMostyn. "It sends a clear message that Cdns will not tolerate political candidates with these types of hateful and bigoted attitudes."
— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) August 30, 2019
http://bnaibrith.ca/anti_israel_liberal_party_candidate_swiftly_ousted_after_b_nai_brith_expose
http://torontosun.com/news/national...in-montreal-riding-over-anti-semitic-comments
 
spaminator

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,867
3,042
113
LILLEY: Liberals must answer questions on dumped candidate
Brian Lilley
Published:
September 4, 2019
Updated:
September 4, 2019 8:40 PM EDT
Imam Hassan Guillet arrives at a gathering at the Pavillon de la Jeunesse, marking the first anniversary of a mosque shooting on Jan. 28, 2018 in Quebec City. (The Canadian Press)
He says he’s not anti-Semitic and the Liberals knew all about his views and past comments before they approved his candidacy, so Imam Hassan Guillet is wondering if the Liberal Party acted out of bad faith or incompetency.
Guillet was booted as the Liberal candidate for the Montreal riding of St. Leonard-St. Michel after B’Nai Brith raised issues about the man’s past statements and actions. B’Nai Brith noted that Guillet had celebrated the release from prison of Raed Salah, a Hamas-aligned activist who claimed Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks and that Jews bake bread using the blood of non-Jewish children.
There were also statements from Guillet himself, including calling Israel an apartheid state and claiming that “Zionists control American politics.” Guillet even accused U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, of pushing an “Israel first” agenda through the White House.
When the information was presented to the Liberals by B’Nai Brith, the party didn’t respond. After not hearing back for more than a week, the organization released the information publicly and the Liberals quickly dumped Guillet.
At a news conference Wednesday, Guillet said the party was aware of his Facebook posts since the beginning of August.
“The party either knew or should have known what it contained,” Guillet said.
He wondered why he was accepted if his comments were so problematic. He also pointed out that the party had discussed a PR plan that included outreach to the Jewish community.
If Guillet’s version of events are true, then the Liberals have a problem.
The party quick to denounce their former candidate using Liberal MPs like Anthony Housefather in Montreal and Michael Levitt in Toronto, who are not only Jewish but also represent ridings with large Jewish populations.
Neither man would have been comfortable with the information laid out by B’Nai Brith, the question is, why was party HQ?
They knew about his comments, they sat on them, someone or several someones even approved of them.
“The anti-Semitic tropes of ‘Zionists controlling governments’ and of ‘dual loyalty’ are two of the more abhorrent expressions of paranoid anti-Jewish conspiracy theories,” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada.
Mostyn said that parties can’t tolerate this kind of bigotry and I have to agree with him. For his part, though, Guillet says he’s not against Jews.
“I am not anti-Semitic. On the contrary, I campaigned and I will always campaign against all forms of racism, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism,” he said.
Ok, then explain away the comments.
Explain away the celebration of someone with abhorrent views.
It’s not like he celebrated the release of Salah, a man jailed for incitement to violence without knowing what the cleric was about. Salah was jailed for calling on Palestinians to martyr themselves to free the al-Aqsa mosque.
“May the streets of Jerusalem be purified with the blood of the innocent, who shed it in order to separate from their souls from the soldiers of the Israel occupation, also in the blessed al-Aqsa mosque,” Salah said.
That’s more than a misplaced comment, that is incitement to violence, that is a call for people to be killed.
Would a single party in Canada today accept someone who celebrated the Irish Republican Army but who had not renounced violence for political ends?
LILLEY: Unions claim to be angels while threatening classroom stability
LILLEY: Keep British child killer out of Canada
LILLEY: Trudeau isn’t what he claims in standing up for women or minorities
The answer is no and so Guillet, due to his own comments and those of people he supported, shouldn’t be accepted as a candidate.
The Liberal Party did the right thing in turfing him, now we need to know the answer to the question Guillet himself asked.
Why did they ever accept him given what they knew?
http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-liberals-must-answer-questions-on-dumped-candidate
 
Danbones

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
24,505
2,197
113
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom