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Canada Has Appointed an Israel Basher to a Major Job; But There Is Still Time to Act

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York, US, Sept. 21, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar

My kids have a game called, “Who Said That?” The rules are simple: one player picks a card that has a quote on it, and offers three choices for the speaker or writer.

Let’s play our own version, with this quote:

Contrary to conventional wisdom (which is far more convention than it is wisdom), terror is not an irrational strategy pursued solely by fundamentalists with politically and psychologically warped visions of a new political, religious or ideological order. It is in fact, a rational and well-calculated strategy that is pursued with surprisingly high success rates.

Was that said by:

Osama Bin Laden;
Timothy McVeigh; or
Canada’s newly appointed Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, Birju Dattani?

The correct answer is 3.

The quote above is taken from a 2015 presentation Dattani made to showcase his research as a postgraduate student in England at the London School of Economics, and the School of Oriental and African Studies.

During this time, Dattani also tweeted that “Palestinians are Warsaw Ghetto Prisoners of Today” — which linked to an article with the same title. Another tweet linked to an article suggesting a connection between Israeli actions and summary executions by the Nazis and others.

On another occasion, Dattani shared a stage with a member of an Islamic fundamentalist group that’s banned in Britain, wants to impose Sharia law worldwide, and, of course, opposes the existence of Israel.

A reasonable observer might infer a pattern, and wonder how Dattani passed the vetting that surely must have preceded his appointment to his new post, which he’s set to assume on August 8.

So how did this happen?

To begin with, Dattani had previously served as executive director of the Yukon Territory’s Human Rights Commission, and most recently, at a Toronto community college — roles that did not involve a great deal of public scrutiny.  Moreover, he went by a different name, Mujahid Dattani, during his student days.

Mistakes happen. But this is the third time in the past 18 months that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has stumbled into a major scandal that rocks the trust of the Jewish community.

Last year, it emerged that the Canadian government had awarded a six-figure anti racism consulting contract to Laith Marouf, the son of a Syrian diplomat who opined that “Zionism is Nazism, and Apartheid Canada was a model for both of them,” and had posted this July 2021 tweet about former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler and the National Summit to Combat Antisemitism Cotler was hosting on behalf of the Canadian government:

 

In a nation of more than 40 million people, surely there was a better candidate to lecture Canada’s broadcasting industry on the alleged scourge of racism than some antisemite who was spewing hate within plain sight of the nearest Google search.

The Canadian Ministry of Heritage has tried to recover the money it paid to Marouf, but since he’s currently living in Lebanon and busy running “Free Palestine Television,” a venture he launched after the October 7 Hamas massacre, the prospect for getting anything back from him is beyond remote.

The third low point was the government’s feting of a Waffen SS veteran in Parliament last September, which cost the Speaker of the House his job.

To call the relationship between Canada’s Jewish community and Trudeau’s governing Liberals “troubled” would be a polite understatement at this point.

And the government has only itself to blame.

The Trudeau Liberals aren’t a collection of raging antisemites, but their fealty to an intersectional ideology that’s hostile to the Jewish State and that sometimes bumbles into open antisemitism has given them a blind spot. Which is why, where the Jews are concerned, Trudeau and his party can’t stop stepping on these metaphorical rakes.

According to intersectional dogma, Jews — and Zionists especially — are “white,” and, as such, are members of an oppressor class that can be offended with little concern.

If someone seeking to be the nation’s top human rights adjudicator had demonstrated bias against any other group — Black, Indigenous, trans, or Muslim, for example — that bias would have been disqualifying at the outset.

If it was missed after an appointment was announced, the outrage would have been widespread, Trudeau’s apology swift, and the job offer immediately rescinded.

Dattani is still set to assume his new role.

His appointment has been made more untenable by virtue of the fact that the job has become more important than it was a few months ago.

An unapologetic progressive activist, Trudeau recently passed an Online Harms Act with broad reaching powers. Some of the measures, such as new obligations imposed on social media platforms to monitor child pornography and so-called revenge porn, are unambiguously good ideas.

But the legislation also gives the Canadian Human Rights Commission new powers to regulate “communication of hate speech” with fines of up to C$50,000 (US$36,500).

The potential chilling effect of that cudgel has always been problematic, which is why ensuring the Commission’s leadership is both unbiased and seen to have unimpeachable judgment is critical.

One might be inclined to attribute the views publicly expressed by Dattani during his student days as the strident immoderation of youth.

In most other jobs, that might be a good enough explanation.

But how would a Chief Commissioner Dattani respond to a Laith Marouf? Would his willingness to sanction Marouf be tempered by fellowship over their shared opposition to Israeli policies? Would his views be any different if instead of being an antisemite, Marouf was a white supremacist, a homophobe, or a cheerleader of militant West Bank settlers?

How would Dattani view the excesses in his own rear view mirror, many of which no doubt have him cringing for reasons beyond the high-status job (which pays between C$335,100 and C$394,200, plus a generous pension) he stands to lose as a result of them.

Very few people are the sum of the worst online posts they send out into the sea of cognitive effluent that is social media.

But the person who is expected to deter and — if necessary, punish — that kind of behavior ought not to be someone who has online excesses of his own, which were made under a different name, and not candidly disclosed to those who vetted him for the job.

At last count, antisemitic outrages represented 56% of reported hate crimes in Toronto, Canada’s largest city. In such a climate, having questions of anti-Jewish bias hang over the nation’s newly empowered hate crimes czar would profoundly undermine the legitimacy of the role and the prospects of success for Trudeau’s new Online Harms bill.

The Canadian Justice Department is currently investigating Dattani’s past conduct. One can only hope that at the end of the process, the government finds itself with a Chief Commissioner who comes to the role with less baggage.

Ian Cooper is a Toronto-based lawyer.

The post Canada Has Appointed an Israel Basher to a Major Job; But There Is Still Time to Act first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week

Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism

A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.

The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.

“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.

“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”

Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.

This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.

According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.

During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.

As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.

No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.

The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.

“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.

“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.

“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.

Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.

In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.

In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.

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Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution

German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.

“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”

“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.

Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.

The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.

Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.

Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.

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UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.

The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.

The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.

The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.

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