Anti-Semitism: A minister and aides distance themselves from a controversial guest

A minister and several federal deputies distanced themselves from a man accused of anti-Semitism after parliament opened its doors last Tuesday as part of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) took issue with the attendance at the event of a Toronto man who runs “Meshwar Media,” which has previously expressed Holocaust-denying views. Regarding the Holocaust.

Transport Minister Omar Algabra, who was at the venue, tweeted on Thursday that “the attendee should not be invited to the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group event.”

“What this man said was offensive and anti-Semitic and should be condemned. Anti-Semitism is real and I speak out against it every time I see it,” he said.

Liberal MPs Samir Zuberi, as well as Friendship Group chair Salma Zahid, both distanced themselves from the questioner.

The latter stated that more than 150 people attended the event, whose invitations were widely circulated in Palestinian society.

Black Quebecois MPs Mario Beaulieu and Denis Trudel, New Democrats Matthew Green and Niki Ashton as well as the Green Party’s new co-leader Elizabeth May were also on the scene.

None of them posted a comment on Twitter about their participation in the event.

According to the Documenting Antisemitism Twitter account, “Meshwar Media” also called last week’s bombing in Jerusalem, which killed several people, including a Canadian teenager, a “quality operation.”

B’nai B’rith Canada, a Jewish advocacy organization, said the Ontario government has suspended advertising in the Meshwar Media newspaper from 2021.

For its part, CIJA asked Minister Algabra to apologize and declared that “members of the Canadian government should not meet with Holocaust deniers and Hamas sympathizers who praise the killing of children. This is a scandal.”