‘Comprehensive Assessment’ Was Conducted Before Contracting Laith Marouf: Heritage Department

Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez prepares to appear at a Senate hearing on Bill C-11, in Ottawa on Nov. 22, 2022. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

The Department of Canadian Heritage says it conducted a “comprehensive assessment” prior to awarding a contract to a now-defunded firm that employed a consultant later found to have posted numerous antisemitic remarks online.

Montreal-based consultancy firm Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) was approved for funding “following a comprehensive assessment including both regional and national committees,” wrote Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s department in a briefing note obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The subsidy “should never have been approved,” the note said, adding that grant applicants will now be required to swear an oath that they are not antisemitic.

CMAC received a federal grant of over $130,000 in 2021 for an anti-racism project, but the funding was pulled in August 2022 shortly after past Twitter posts by Laith Marouf, one of the firm’s senior consultants, were found in which he referred to Jewish people as “white supremacists” and “bags of human feces.”

Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen was allegedly warned by Liberal MP Anthony Housefather of Marouf’s antisemitic comments prior to the government’s funding being released to CMAC.

“I said the contract had to be cancelled. I alerted [Hussen] 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,” Housefather told the National Post on Aug. 23, 2022, adding that “action could have been taken more quickly.”

A day prior to Housefather’s remarks, Hussen called on CMAC to explain how it hired Marouf and how it would rectify the situation.

Twitter suspended Marouf’s account for “hateful conduct”in 2021.

‘Begged Us’

Marouf appeared on an American podcast in October 2022 and alleged that the Canadian Heritage Department had “begged” CMAC to take federal funding in 2021.

“[Heritage Canada] begged us to apply within four days to receive funding to create a series of conferences across the country that bring together racialized and Indigenous broadcasters, media producers, academics, to discuss a strategy for anti-racism in the media,” Marouf said on Oct. 23.

“We were shocked because there were no funding packages open for us to apply to. We applied anyway and we got the money very fast. We did all this work.”

Rodriguez said on Sept. 1 that CMAC should never have received “a cent of taxpayer dollars.”

“Racism in any form has no place in Canada. I condemn the disgusting antisemitic comments made by Laith Marouf. I have no tolerance for this,” he told The Canadian Press.

Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman criticized Ottawa’s handling of the situation, saying someone in government must’ve known about Marouf’s “history of racism and hatred.”

“Only a public inquiry with compulsory document production and evidence taken under oath can satisfy the Canadian public as to who in the government knew about the consultant’s history of racism and hatred and why they failed to act promptly and decisively,” she wrote in a petition on Sept. 1.

The Canadian Press and Andrew Chen contributed to this report.