Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 7th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

—and not a single dollar will be rolled out before this new vetting process is in place.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 20 seconds, Ms. Saks, if you wish to throw in a comment or something.

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

It's gone to 14 now.

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Okay, well, thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Anti-Semitism is one of the oldest forms of hate and the most pernicious. Minister, I appreciate your comments and your taking a full departmental approach in applying IHRA in addressing this matter.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Now, for the Bloc Québécois, we have Martin Champoux.

Martin, you have six minutes, please.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, earlier, when asked by my colleague Ms. Lantsman why you took so long to respond after being alerted by our colleague Mr. Housefather to the situation and Mr. Marouf's comments on Twitter, you responded that you lacked information.

When you had already been informed as early as mid-July, what information did you lack that your reaction to these degrading and unacceptable remarks only occurred on August 22? What information did you lack that justified such a delay? Wasn't it scandalous enough for you at that point, Minister?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Thank you for the question.

I want to show the honourable member that I find— I've stated this before and I'll state it again—the comments made by this individual as well as this organization to be vile, reprehensible, hateful and unacceptable. The anti-Semitism, racism and hate that has been expressed—

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Minister, you are not answering my question.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

—has absolutely no place in this society.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I want to know what was missing—

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I'm getting to the answer.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Please go ahead, because I don't have much time and I have other questions.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Okay, thank you.

The fact of the matter is that, as soon as we were made aware of this individual and his hateful remarks, I asked my team to look into it, give me options and also deal with the Department of Canadian Heritage to find out funding details about this organization and make sure that we follow the process that was in place upon looking at the funding details.

We consulted the legal department and followed the process that was in place at that time to suspend funding, and I can update the member now that we've not only terminated funding but have demanded that this organization pay back the money that—

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Yes, that's quite normal, and we understand.

The thing that I find very surprising, Minister, is that although you were informed of this situation in mid-July by our colleague Mr. Housefather, you did not react until after social media had been informed.

So we were made aware of this situation on Twitter before your department reacted. It's a bit ironic. I get the impression that it was the pressure from social media that made you react. I'm rather concerned that your ministry didn't act more quickly and address this situation a month earlier.

Also, you said that you had held the organization in question to account and asked it to provide you with an update. What did the Community Media Advocacy Centre and Laith Marouf say to you when you asked them to provide these accounts?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

When this issue was raised, I want to assure the honourable member again that we immediately asked the Department of Canadian Heritage to confirm the organization's project funding details and to inform us on the procedural next steps.

After the review by the legal department, we followed the process in place to cut funding to the organization as well as terminate the project. We know this should not have happened. That's why I'm here today, to discuss with you the changes—

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Minister—

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

—to make sure this never happens again.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Wait a minute, Minister. You said yourself that you had asked the CMAC to be accountable. So you should have expected a response from the agency.

Did the agency respond to you? If so, what did they say in response to justify the unacceptable comments that were made?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I will turn to associate deputy minister Khanna for this answer.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

We can talk to him in the second hour, because I have more questions for you, Minister.

You have said that you have put in place measures internally and provided training on racism to ensure that there is no racism or anti-Semitism within the organizations to which you entrust public funds.

Where do you place francophobia and hate speech towards francophones in your order of severity of hateful and disgraceful speech? I ask, because it still took until September 12 before you acknowledged that Mr. Marouf had also made hateful comments towards francophones.

Does the training you provide to your teams also address this type of hate?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

As I have said many times before, this individual's hateful comments against French-speaking Canadians are absolutely abhorrent. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms—