Robert Spencer stated in his update on this story on August 23:
Laith Marouf has been seething with open hatred for Jews and others for years. If the Trudeau government only just found this out, it’s criminally negligent. If it knew all along and didn’t care until there was a public furor, it’s something worse than that.
As it turns out, it was “something worse than that.”
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather stated that he contacted Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen “BEFORE the news was widely reported on in the media.” He also “aggressively demanded that action be taken.” But none was. So now the Liberal government of Canada is in damage control mode.
Actions speak louder than words. The major public fallout from the Marouf revelation is what moved the Trudeau government to act, not Marouf’s appalling display of antisemitism in the first place.
There’s more background about the antisemitism in Trudeau government “diversity” circles. A previous Jihad Watch story about Laith Marouf, “More antisemitism from another government-funded Muslim ‘anti-racism’ representative,” detailed cases of other diversity gurus who have displayed open antisemitism, but who are still being consulted by the Trudeau government. The only difference with the other cases is that the level of antisemitism displayed wasn’t as shocking as it is in Marouf’s case.
Nor did the mainstream media pick up on those cases, which involved support for BDS and a statement that “if Jewish orgs were less supportive of Israel, then it would be easier to work with them” after a Texas synagogue attack. This is because antisemitism in Canada is not being taken as seriously as it should be.
The Heritage Department, and more generally the Trudeau government, has its preferences. It is highly intolerant of rights and freedoms when it comes to merely criticizing Islam, and levies accusations of “Islamophobia” without any justification. Had anyone gone so far as to utter anything even similar to the words of Marouf about Muslims, the government’s reaction would have been swift. But it was an entirely different story when the target was Jews.
“Minister was warned about consultant’s anti-Semitic tweets before news broke: Liberal MP,” by Anja Karadeglija, National Post, August 23, 2022:
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather says Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen was warned about anti-Semitic tweets by a government-funded anti-racism consultant before the issue was reported on widely, and that Hussen should have acted earlier to cut funding.
Heritage Canada gave a $133,000 grant to the Community Media Advocacy Centre to build an anti-racism strategy for the broadcasting sector, which it launched in April.
Last week, Canadian Press reported on anti-Semitic tweets from CMAC senior consultant Laith Marouf and said Hussen had asked Canadian Heritage to “look closely at the situation involving disturbing comments made by the individual in question.” Hussen then announced Monday that he would cut the funding to CMAC.
Housefather told the National Post he first contacted the minister before the news was widely reported on in the media.
I said the contract had to be cancelled. I alerted him and I persistently communicated with the minister in his office, from the day I learned about it, until today, and aggressively demanded that action be taken,” he said.
“Action could have been taken more quickly.”
Housefather said he was “very pleased that the minister and his office had been collaborative with me but I believe that the action should have been taking more swiftly.”
Housefather said if it were up to him, “it would have been done the moment anybody became aware of this, but I’m happy with the end result.”
A spokesperson for Hussen said in a statement Tuesday evening that the “comments by Laith Marouf that we continue to learn about every day are absolutely appalling, and we condemn the antisemitism, racism, and hatred…
