On this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) acting president Charlotte-Anne Malischewski said she was “deeply concerned by the meteoric rise in anti-Semitism” seen in Canada since the attacks. from Hamas to Israel last October.
“When hate enters our communities, it threatens public safety, democracy and human rights,” he said. “Hate divides us and pits us against each other.”
In the current climate, where the war in Gaza has made the Canadian Jewish community the scapegoat for criticism of the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, one would have expected federal Justice Minister Arif Virani to make an effort to find a worthy successor to Mr.me Malischewski will permanently occupy this position at the top of the hierarchy of human rights bodies in Canada.
In particular, given that Bill C-63 on online harms will give the UN Human Rights Commission new powers to determine the validity of complaints about hate content, the new Commission Chair must be above any suspicion of bias for or against any complainant who approaches the Commission.
However, by appointing Birju Dattani as chair of the Canadian Human Rights Commission on June 15, Virani appears to have sought above all to please the progressive wing of the Liberal Party of Canada. The appointment of this former head of the Yukon Human Rights Commission and “champion of equity, diversity and inclusion” is reminiscent of that of Amira Elghawaby, who became special representative for the fight against Islamophobia last year and who was persecuted for her writings considered anti-Bequese after her appointment was announced.
METERme Elghawaby quickly apologized, but his act of repentance was immediately questioned by Quebec politicians and his credibility was irreparably damaged. While he was able to keep his job, he has become virtually invisible since taking office.
Birju Dattani’s case is much more serious. According to revelations published this week in the Toronto media, the past of this former president of the Muslim Students Association of the University of Calgary is riddled with anti-Semitic statements and dubious associations. While studying in London in 2012, he participated in a protest outside the Israeli embassy during which protesters repeated the slogan “Zionism is terrorism.” In 2015, while teaching in the British capital, he participated in a conference with a member of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which defends Sharia law and which the British government included on its list of banned terrorist organizations this year.
The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs is demanding nothing less than the withdrawal of his nomination. According to the organization, Dattani “shared articles comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, participated in a roundtable in the United Kingdom with a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, (…) which seeks to establish a new caliphate and opposes the existence of an Israeli state, and has repeatedly lectured on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement at Israeli Apartheid Week at British universities.
Arif Virani’s office has pleaded ignorance, saying Dattani did not inform him of his controversial tweets or anti-Israel activism during the nomination process for the CHRC presidency. While living in London, Dattani used a different given name. However, this does not prevent the minister from being accused of not having carried out thorough due diligence before appointing him.
Mr Virani now promises to conduct a formal review of Mr Dattani’s appointment before 8 August, when he takes up his post as CHRC director, and to make the review report public. For his part, Mr Dattani apologised this week in an interview with Globe and mailwhere he acknowledged that his previous comments and tweets may have hurt members of the Jewish community. “I wouldn’t do it now,” he stressed, adding that his opinion has “evolved” since then.
It is good that Birju Dattani recognizes his misconduct. However, his appointment is inadmissible. After all, he clearly tried to hide his previous comments from members of the Justice Minister’s office, who certainly asked him, during the appointment process, to share any potentially compromising information about his past. Canadians must be able to trust the impartiality of the Canadian Human Rights Commission if it is to retain the credibility it needs to adequately carry out its fundamental function of protecting Canadians from discrimination.
As for Justin Trudeau’s government, let’s just say that Dattani’s appointment is another example of how progressive overzealousness has backfired again. Let’s just say that it doesn’t seem to be learning from its mistakes.
