Thank you, Madam Chair.
Obviously, this is an extremely sensitive subject for the Jewish community and for francophones. Laith Marouf is a sinister individual and a contemptible character. I think we have all seen recently, during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, that Mr. Marouf was a loose cannon on social media. He is continuing to say totally unhinged things, things that are, to say the least, intolerably violent and racist. On that point there is no doubt, and the fact that the government has given him money to promote anti-racism makes no sense. We all agree on that.
We held hearings at this committee when this story came to light, at the beginning of the year. We had an opportunity to hear Mr. Hussen and Mr. Rodriguez , who came to answer our questions, particularly regarding how the body responsible for diversity and inclusion in the Department of Canadian Heritage operates. At that time, I was satisfied with the answers given on this subject. Mr. Rodriguez was extremely clear on the fact that the Department of Canadian Heritage was designed in such a way that the ministers have different jobs and do not report to the Minister of Heritage. I too do not find that to be a very sensible way of operating, but I do not think they were the ones who invented it. That is how it works, period.
So in my opinion, the minister who exhibited extreme incompetence in the handling of this matter at the time, to me, was Mr. Hussen. The reason Mr. Rodriguez was alerted, after numerous attempts to communicate, including by our colleague Mr. Housefather, was that there had been no response or reaction from Mr. Hussen. I do not think we can criticize Mr. Rodriguez for being late to the party. I do not think that is useful.
I like to fish. I like to fish for salmon, and I know you do not brag about the little fish you catch. You are happy when you catch a big fish, and I think that is what the Conservatives are trying to do. I do not think it is the thing to do. What we should be doing right now is something other than pointing fingers at somebody, trying to find a guilty party or poking our noses into... I will not finish my sentence, because people who have dogs will understand what I mean. We should be focusing the serious issue: the unacceptable things that Laith Marouf is still saying today on social media. That is what we have to react to.
The serious thing is that up to now, despite what the committee has asked, the measures that have been taken to recover the money that was given to this individual are timid, and I am being polite. One might say they do not want to get the money back and they are pretending to try, by handing it over to a collection agency. There is about as much chance of getting the money back as there is of winning Lotto 6/49 two weeks in a row.
We have to know where we stand in recovering the money. We talked about this again a few weeks ago. We have to clearly hear that serious efforts have been initiated to recover the $130,000. We also have to hear, as we were told when we held hearings on this at the beginning of the year, what measures the government has put in place to ensure that this kind of thing never happens again. These are the things that concern me.
I have no interest in hearing the minister who held the position at the time and who, according to everything we have been told, had nothing to do with the decisions or measures to be taken in this case. If you still want us to hear Mr. Hussen to find out how bad he was at managing this matter, that will not be useful, it will get us nothing concrete, but it would still be more useful than hearing Mr. Rodriguez. We would do better to hear the present Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities, Ms. Khera, and question her, to find out where we stand. That would have made a bit more sense as the basis for discussion.
What I want to know is what is being done to recover that money, which is still in the bank account of an individual who continues to engage in behaviour that is aggressive, anti-Semitic, disgraceful and insulting to an entire community and to the entire population of Quebec and Canada.
I am going to stop here, Madam Chair, but I think this motion is just a political game that has nothing concrete or tangible to contribute and I will not be supporting it.
Thank you.