MP Ahmed Hussen tells Parliament he knew about Laith Marouf contract for a month before speaking out

OTTAWA – Diversity and inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen admitted to MPs he was alerted about the antisemitic tweets of a person with a government contract for anti-racism training a month before he first spoke out on the issue.

Earlier this year, Hussen’s department gave a $133,000 grant to the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) to build an anti-racism strategy for the broadcasting sector. On Twitter, Laith Marouf, a senior consultant with CMAC, has referred to “Jewish White Supremacists,” as “loud mouthed bags of human feces.” He also used anti Francophone slurs and called French an “ugly language”

Hussen said he was alerted to the issue by fellow Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, on July 20. But he did not speak out about the issue a month later, saying his department would do a full review of the funding, before ultimately suspending all funding, demanding CMAC return the $133,000 it received and brought in a broader review of antisemitism funding.

Hussen told committee members there was no excuse for Marouf’s organization having received funding and it was unacceptable.

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“The incident reflects the failure in the system and is a slap in the face of the Jewish community, the Francophone community and many other groups that he has continuously attacked with his hateful comments and for that, I sincerely apologize.”

Hussen said he used the month between finding out about the comments and speaking out about them to consult with departmental officials about the government’s legal options for withdrawing the money. He said in addition to reviewing all other funding his department provides for anti-racism, contracts have been re-written to make it easier for a minister to remove funding.

He said he wished it was done more quickly, but it had to follow a process.

“Do I wish that we’ve been able to move the process along more quickly? Absolutely, but it was also important that we got this right to ensure accountability for this organization.”

Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman demanded to know how exactly the government could have missed something so blatant. She pointed out in April, when the grant was initially awarded a press release had quoted Hussen as being proud to hand out the funding.

“Did no one Google Mr. Marouf? His wife? The organization, and I want to know from the minister what he was ostensibly proud of,” Lantsman asked. “Did nobody Google anybody in the release?”

Marouf has also received funding from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and Conservative MP Rachel Thomas pushed forward a motion calling for Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez to be called to the committee.

She said Rodriguez has been silent on the funding.

“Minister Rodriguez did not speak to this situation for nearly five weeks after it came to light And we have not had an opportunity to give Mr. Rodriguez, the floor to give him the chance to use his voice to help us understand why that decision was made to remain silent.”

The CRTC board members are appointed by cabinet, but the agency is designed to be arms-length from government.

Thomas’ motion prevented other MPs from asking department officials more questions about how Marouf’s funding had been approved and the committee spiraled into procedural wrangling for the last half of the meeting.

Liberal MP Ya’ara Saks accused Thomas of having effectively sabotaged the committee. She said Thomas was denying the opportunity for Jewish and Francophone communities to hear from government officials about how this was approved.

“There are communities watching right now, watching, waiting to hear an explanation. We have a member of the department here, prepared to answer these questions.”

The committee ultimately ran out of time and didn’t vote on Thomas’ motion.

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