Following an investigation into online comments made by incoming Human Rights Commissioner Birju Dattani, Justice Minister Arif Virani said Dattani had “agreed to take leave” just one day before he was due to take up his new role.
“Mr Dattani has agreed to take leave while we carefully consider the matter,” Villani said in a statement Wednesday night.
“We will have more to say in the coming days.”
The minister said maintaining confidence in the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and its chair is a top priority.
Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lanzmann called for Dattani’s removal.
“There is nothing independent or transparent about this review because the entire process was orchestrated by the Liberal Party, which has spent weeks trying to cover up the truth about this appointment,” Lanzmann said in a statement.
Past social media posts discovered
Dattani’s appointment was announced in June, after a Canadian Jewish advocacy group called attention to some of his past social media posts as anti-Semitic.
“The appointment of an individual with such a deeply flawed record will only exacerbate the public’s skeptical perception of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and undermine our confidence in the commission’s ability to adjudicate on issues of hatred and discrimination,” the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs said at the time.
The minister’s office initially denied knowing about the posts but later said that Dattani had made them under the pseudonym “Mujahid Dattani.”
The Privy Council Office (PCO), which conducts background checks on all governor general appointments, said it did not initially look into the alias. Once it was discovered that there was an oversight, a PCO representative said, the alias was shared with security partners who conduct background checks, who will then investigate.
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 Israel’s existence.
Dattani said he did not know the affiliations of the other jurors and had never met them before.
Last month, Dattani’s lawyer, Muneeza Sheikh, said in an email to CBC News that his client “disclosed all information requested by the government” but had no knowledge of how that information was used or to whom it was provided.
In an email to CBC News Wednesday evening, Sheikh said he had no comment “at this time.”
