Justice Minister Arif Villani’s office said it is investigating past comments and activities by the recently appointed head of Canada’s human rights watchdog that Jewish advocacy groups have called anti-Semitic.
Birju Dattani was appointed chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) earlier this month after previously serving in a similar role with the Yukon Human Rights Commission.
The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said it was “deeply concerned” about Dattani’s appointment to the CHRC, given his past affiliations and social media activity.
“The appointment of an individual with such a deeply flawed record will only exacerbate the public’s skeptical perception of the CHRC and undermine confidence in the commission’s ability to adjudicate matters of hate and discrimination,” the Jewish advocacy group said in a statement provided to CBC News.
Asked for comment on CIJA’s concerns, Virani’s office said it was not aware of them at the time Dattani was appointed.
“We are aware of potentially troubling comments made by Mr. Dattani and an event he participated in 10 years ago when he was a graduate student in London, England,” Chantal Obertin, a spokeswoman for Mr. Villani, said in an email.
“We are carefully reviewing these statements and events and are consulting with Mr Dattani and relevant stakeholders to ensure we have complete and accurate information.”
Past social media activity comes under scrutiny
CIJA pointed to a blog post in which Dattani purportedly published an article on Twitter (formerly known as X) comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. The post and Dattani’s account appear to have been deleted. CBC News has not independently verified the alleged post.
Reached for comment, Dattani told CBC News he has never compared Israel to the Nazis and called the comparison “nasty and offensive.” He shared the article, titled “Palestinians are modern-day prisoners of the Warsaw Ghetto,” without comment, but added that he disagrees with the article’s assertions.
“In 2014, as a scholar who studies these issues, I posted the article on Twitter for discussion without comment. I did not agree with the comparison, but I acknowledge that it deeply hurt members of the Jewish community and for that I sincerely apologize. I would never do it again now,” he said in an email.
In 2015, Dattani spoke on a panel in Britain with members of Hezbollah Tahrir, an Islamic fundamentalist group that seeks to establish a new caliphate and opposes the existence of the state of Israel.
Dattani said he was not aware of the affiliations of the other panelists and had never met them before.
“I disagree with the other committee members and wholeheartedly oppose and condemn Hezbollah-Tahrir,” he said in an email.
CIJA said the government should have vetted Dattani more rigorously before appointing him and called on him to clearly condemn his past conduct.
