Trudeau Promises Complete Review of Funding to Anti-Racism Group After ‘Vile’ Tweets

Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Ahmed Hussen speaks during a news conference in the foyer of the House of Commons in Ottawa on June 6, 2022. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is conducting a “complete review“ of funding to an anti-racism group whose senior consultant sent a series of tweets about ”Jewish white supremacists.”

Trudeau says the government is putting in place procedures to make sure that no hateful organization or individual receives public money in the future.

Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen cut $133,000 in government funding to the Community Media Advocacy Centre last week and suspended an anti-racism project it was overseeing after “reprehensible and vile” tweets posted by its senior consultant, Laith Marouf, came to light.

Trudeau’s comments come as other past funding for the organization is scrutinized.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says he wants to see a clawback of grant money that his constituency office recommended providing to the group as part of the Canada Summer Jobs program in 2018.

The CMAC did not immediately respond to a renewed request for comment.

A lawyer representing Marouf has previously drawn 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.