Deputy Minister Isabel Mondoux announced Thursday that Canada’s Department of Heritage has taken legal action to recover funds paid to a consultant accused of posting anti-Semitic material online.
The federal government last year terminated its contract with the Community Media Advocacy Center after it awarded it more than $122,000 in funding for projects to help fight racism.
Ottawa demanded a refund after Laith Malouf, a senior consultant at the centre, was accused of posting anti-Semitic content on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The matter is now in court, Mondoux told a hearing of the House of Commons Committee on Canadian Heritage. The department also hired a collection agency to recover the money and sought the assistance of the Canada Revenue Agency, she added.
“We have asked the Canada Revenue Agency to forward the funds to us as soon as they are received by the organization,” Mondoux said.
“There’s a process that’s been filed in court. It’s for recovery.”
The ministry did not disclose details of the lawsuit. Maloof did not immediately respond to media inquiries Thursday.
The department has changed its review process
When the contract was terminated last fall, Mr. Maloof’s lawyer, Stephen Ellis, distinguished between his client’s posts about Jews in general and those about people whom Mr. Maloof described as “Jewish white supremacists.” .
Ellis said Malouf harbors no hostility toward the Jewish faith as a group.
Maloof’s social media posts were added to the Canadian Heritage List last July by Liberal MP Anthony Housefather.
One article said: “You know those noisy bags of human faeces, aka Jewish white supremacists, unless we liberate Palestine and they go back to where they came from? Once they’re gone, they’ll go back to being the deep-voiced bastards (sic).” Christian/Secular White Supremacist Master. ”
The department has since changed the way it vets funding requests for community and anti-racism projects. It now requires contractors to promise in writing that they will not promote discrimination or hatred.
