After a Canadian government scandal in which an anti-racism program’s adviser was found to have made violent and derogatory remarks about Israelis, Americans and French Canadians, the Canadian Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Ministry announced on Wednesday night that it has suspended the program and cut funding to the adviser’s firm.
The Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) had been funded by Heritage Canada’s Anti-Racism Action Program to work on projects promoting minorities in Canadian media. One of CMAC’s senior advisers and project leaders, Syrian-Palestinian Laith Marouf, was revealed by Canadian journalist Jonathan Kay to have made controversial comments such as wishing for American military deaths and for Israelis to be expelled from Israel.
"Life is too short for shoes with laces, or for entertaining Jewish White Supremacists with anything but a bullet to the head."
Senior CMAC consultant Laith Marouf
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
Canadian government cuts ties with CMAC
“Antisemitism has no place in this country,” said Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen. “The antisemitic comments made by Laith Marouf are reprehensible and vile. We have provided notice to the Community Media Advocacy Centre that their funding has been cut and their project has been suspended.”
Hussen called on CMAC to answer how they came to hire Marouf, given his extensive history of antisemitic and xenophobic statements.
However, critics have claimed that Marouf is not simply an employee, but is in an effective leadership role at CMAC – and the government’s oversight is about the organization as a whole rather than just one of its prominent employees.
In response to Hussen, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said, “Mr. Minister: You are taking us for fools. You are calling on CMAC to answer ‘how they came to hire Laith Marouf’? Are you not aware that he and his wife Gretchen King are CMAC? That they and CMAC share the same address? That it was you and Marouf who announced this program?”
According to a Louisiana obituary, Marouf is listed as the husband of King, another of the three CMAC senior consultants. While only listed as a consultant, King signs the corporation documents as a director or officer of the organization.
MP Anthony Housefather tweeted, “Pleased that the contract with CMAC has been ended and that CMAC needs to account for its hiring of Marouf. But we need to also ensure that the Ministry of Canadian Heritage accepts accountability. We need a thorough review and measures taken to stop this happening again.”
"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."
Senior CMAC consultant Laith Marouf
Marouf's comments about Israelis and Jews
Marouf’s derogatory and sometimes violent comments and actions span several years, many of which were directed against Israelis and Jews.
“I have a motto: Life is too short for shoes with laces, or for entertaining Jewish White Supremacists with anything but a bullet to the head,” Marouf said in reference to Zionist Jews, in a screenshot posted by Kay. “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 b*****s of their Christian/secular white supremacist masters.”
astounding—even by the low standards set by all the various other grifters, hysterics, & haters paid out by Ottawa's various "anti-racism" slush funds: The same guy ranting about how Jews are "bags of feces" was hired by @CdnHeritage to train Cdn broadcasters in "anti-racism"... https://t.co/9OeihgNQ5n pic.twitter.com/FjWRLjU8xY
— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) August 12, 2022
In 2002, then-former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Concordia University in Montreal. He never got to speak, as violent clashes broke out between pro-Palestine supporters and Bibi supporters. Marouf was heavily involved in those riots.
In another post, Marouf said that the “Palestinians offer peace to Zionists” and warned that if Israelis chose to fight rather than accept their demands or leave, they would die.
Marouf’s descriptions of Zionists as white supremacists was common in rhetoric on his social media activity, explaining in 2017 that they were “white Jews who adopted Nazism and created Zionism.”
His description of Jews as white supremacists was further couched in denial of Jewish peoplehood, saying that there was “no such thing as ‘the Jewish people.’” Marouf asserted in 2020 that “most Zionists are white converts to Judaism and have no genetic connection,” and “Khazars, and by extension Ashkenazi Jews, are not Semitic by ethnicity or language.” That same year, he described antisemitism as hate from white Christians and Jews directed at “true Semites.”
Back in 2002, Marouf was banned from Concordia University for attacking security and spraying anti-Israel graffiti on the campus walls, local media reported at the time.
"At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wishing it was much bigger with the names of a few million dead corpses of USian [sic] dirt baggs [sic]."
Senior CMAC consultant Laith Marouf
Marouf on Americans and French Canadians
Marouf’s controversial comments weren’t relegated only to Israelis and Jews, however.
Other screenshots published by Kay show Marouf in July lifting his middle finger toward the US Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and “wishing it was much bigger with the names of a few million dead corpses of USian [sic] dirt baggs [sic].” In another, he performed the same gesture at the Lincoln Memorial, “telling him what I think of his s****y colony.”
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
One Twitter user, Michel Landry, shared now-deleted tweets in which Marouf referred to Quebecois as “frogs” who have an IQ of less than 77, and said that French is an ugly language.
"Khazars, and by extension Ashkenazi Jews, are not Semitic by ethnicity or language."
Senior CMAC consultant Laith Marouf
Canadian government's funding of CMAC
Marouf was a speaker and part of the “steering committee” of the “building [of] an anti-racism strategy for Canadian broadcasting,” in which he visited cities across Canada to teach how to reduce barriers to the participation of minorities in media and broadcasting.
“We see this as a timely intervention with the potential to shape how racialized Canadians experience the media space,” Marouf told Cision on the announcement of the project in April. “We are grateful to Canadian Heritage for their partnership and the trust imposed in us and commit to ensuring the successful and responsible execution of this project.”
Hussen told Cision, “In Canada, diversity is a fact, but inclusion is a choice. Our government is proud to contribute to the initiative,” and thanked CMAC for “opening these discussions.”
According to its website, CMAC is a nonprofit that promotes minorities’ access to and ownership of multimedia. CMAC received $133,800 Canadian dollars for programming, including for the consultative events, through the Canadian government’s Anti-Racism Action Program, which “is intended to help address barriers to employment, justice and social participation among Indigenous peoples, racialized communities and religious minorities.”
“We were disturbed that Canadian Heritage approved Anti-Racism Action Program funding to CMAC, an advocacy organization that employs an individual with a more than 20 year history of making outrageous and hateful statements – against Jews, Blacks, Quebecers, and others,” said Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) president and CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel. “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.”
B’nai Brith Canada added, “We are encouraged to see that he will no longer be able to access government funding to help him spew his hateful rhetoric.”
“I want to assure Canadians that our government has and will continue to fight antisemitism and hate in all its forms,” Hussen said on Monday.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.