Government Appoints New Chief of Canadian Human Rights Commission Who Linked To Articles Comparing Israelis to Nazis, Called for Israel Boycott, and Shared Platform With Banned Organization
A deeply troubling record of posts and appearances call into question the ability for Jewish or Zionist Canadians to get a fair, impartial hearing at the Commission.
The Globe and Mail features a bombshell story today on a recent government appointment of the chief of the Canadian Human Rights Commission that not only calls into question its vetting process, but the fairness of the body charged with addressing online hate in Bill C-63. Less than two weeks ago, Justice Minister Arif Virani announced that Birju Dattani had been appointed as Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission for five years. The position is particularly important at this moment given the proposed changes to the Canada Human Rights Act in the Online Harms bill that would expand the scope of Commission work on online hate, including the prospect of dealing with thousands of complaints. Yet what the release did not say is that Birju Dattani once went by the name Mujahid Dattani. Search under that name and it reveals a deeply troubling record of posts and appearances that call into question the ability for Jewish or Zionist Canadians to get a fair, impartial hearing at the Commission.
The Globe story covers the stunning history: a now deleted tweet that linked to an article comparing Israelis to Nazis, which is considered antisemitism under the IHRA definition adopted by the Canadian government. Further, there was a tweet to an article likening Palestinians to Jews incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto and a joint conference appearance with a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist fundamentalist organization which is opposed to the existence of the state of Israel and banned in Britain. In addition, he was interviewed at a rally featuring chants that “Zionism is terrorism” as he personally called for a boycott of Israel.
The government has placed enormous emphasis on the Canada Human Rights Act and enforcement by the Commission as important measures to address online hate. That plan has attracted considerable criticism on free speech grounds, yet days before the Dattani appointment, Virani defended its inclusion in Bill C-63, telling the House of Commons that he was giving Canadians “a tool to get hate speech removed.” But that tool must go through the Canadian Human Rights Commission, now led by someone with a track record that cannot possibly be viewed as impartial when it comes to the biggest target for hate crime.
This appointment has strong echoes of the government’s indefensible funding for Laith Marouf, given that proper vetting would have likely disqualified Dattani from this appointment. In fact, Virani’s officials tell the Globe they were unaware of the posts or activities and that Dattani did not disclose them during the vetting process. This is not a hard call. Virani’s office now says that “It is critical for the Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission to maintain the confidence of all Canadians and to be seen as an impartial and fair judge of matters before them.” That is simply not possible given a track record that includes posts to articles that qualify as antisemitic using the government’s own definition of antisemitism. Dattani should resign or have his appointment rescinded.
Post originally appeared at https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2024/06/government-appoints-new-chief-of-canadian-human-rights-commission-who-linked-to-articles-comparing-israelis-to-nazis-called-for-israel-boycott-and-shared-platform-with-banned-organization/
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Based on what else this government has done, colour me not surprised.
I was violently assaulted by Vancouver Police in my rightful workplace, permanently injured, handcuffed, placed in a police van, wrongfully fired, lost 11 years of future income, my benefits and fully half of my Maximum Pension on August 17th, 2022, for my refusal to wear a mask when no provincial or federal government mask mandates were in effect. I laid 39 criminal charges against my former boss, the Director of Mail Operations for the City of Vancouver, Jen Gall, for administering the Corporation's mandatory mask, test and jab policies. Schedule 3 employees were intentionally left out of the mandate legislation on November 29th, 2021 when these egregious crimes were committed against us. And the vast majority of Canadians loudly cheered for this biofascism.
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