‘Wokism Is About Money and Power,' Says Poilievre After Comments Made by Government-Paid Anti-Racism Consultant

Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen rises during Question Period, in Ottawa, April 28, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Conservative MP and leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre says the fact that the federal government is paying a “consultant who spreads anti-semitism” for “anti-racism” projects proves that “wokism is about money and power.”

“So they pay $470/day to an ‘anti-racism’ consultant who spreads anti-semitism,”Poilievre said in a Twitter post on Aug. 19.

“Proves wokism is about money and power not racial equality,” he added. “We must defund wokism in all our government institutions.”

Poilievre was responding to a tweet by journalist Jonathan Kay about Laith Marouf, a senior consultant with the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC), and comments he has made online such as “Jewish White Supremacists.” The CMAC has received financial support from Heritage Canada through its Anti-Racism Action Program.

“You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they came from, they will return to being low voiced [expletive] of their Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters,” he said in one tweet on Aug. 10, 2022.

In another he made a vulgar comment about former justice minister Irwin Cotler, who was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism. In a comment preceding it, he referred to the federal government’s National Summit on Antisemitism held on July 21, 2021, and said it was the “brain-child of” Cotler, calling him “the Grand Wizard of Zionism in this Colony.”

In another Twitter post on Dec. 21, 2022, he said: “long ago I stopped sharing works of Jewish White people, even if anti-Zionist/anti-Imperialist, because that re-emphasises Jewish White Supremacy in their heads & those of colonized people.”

Responding to a Tweeter post by Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon in which he said in 2021 27,050 people made Aliyah to Israel, a reference to Jewish people moving to Israel, Marouf said, “27,500 [sic] more Zionist [expletive] that we will send back to their lands of White Supremacy.”

Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen, who oversees the diversity and inclusion program in the Heritage Department, said he has asked the agency to “look closely at the situation” of what he described as “unacceptable behaviour” by Marouf.

“We condemn this unacceptable behaviour by an individual working in an organization dedicated to fighting racism and discrimination,” Hussen said in a statement.

“Our position is clear—antisemitism and any form of hate have no place in Canada. That is why I have asked Canadian Heritage to look closely at the situation involving disturbing comments made by the individual in question. We will address this with the organization accordingly, as this clearly goes against our government’s values.”

In 2021, the CMAC received a grant of more than $133,800 from the Heritage Department to build an anti-racism strategy for Canadian broadcasting.

Conservative MP John Nater, his party’s shadow minister for Canadian Heritage, said on social media that “Not a dime of government funds should flow to any individual or organization with a record of promoting hatred against Jewish people.”

He also issued a statement to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, urging him to “verify the information that has been reported and to halt all further funding to the CMAC.”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who served as the federal minister of multiculturalism from 2008 to 2013, said he found the situation to be “appalling.”

“How is it possible that both the media and government have ignored this?” he said on Twitter.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of United Nations Watch, also said top officials must take responsibility for hiring Marouf.

“That’s like paying Jack the Ripper to run a women’s shelter. Top officials must take responsibility and resign,” Neuer wrote on Twitter.

The Epoch Times reached out to Marouf’s lawyer, Stephen Ellis, for comment, but didn’t hear back by publication time.

Ellis told The Canadian Press that his client does not hold “any animus toward the Jewish faith as a collective group,” adding that Marouf’s tweets should be quoted “verbatim” so as to distinguish between his “clear reference to ‘Jewish white supremacists,”’ and Jews or Jewish people in general.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.