The newly appointed chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) will be subject to an independent investigation before his tenure begins in August, Mount Royal Parliament Member Anthony Housefather (Liberal) said Friday. Several reports had suggested that Birju Dattani, who was appointed by Justice Minister and Attorney General Arif Virani on June 14, had a past association with anti-Israel and radical elements.
Dattani, who was appointed chief commissioner by Justice Minister Arif Virani on June 14, allegedly gave a presentation in which he said terrorism was a rational and successful strategy, the Globe and Mail reported Friday.
Dattani had presented his academic work at the Muslim Research Forum in 2015 while working as a teaching assistant at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, the report said.
A National Post expose last Tuesday highlighted Dattani’s alleged interaction with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and panels with radical activists. In response, Dattani said he had never endorsed the anti-Israel movement but was academically interested in it, and he was not aware of the background of the people he had shared a stage with.At a SOAS Muslim Association event in 2015, Dattani shared a panel with Hizb Ut Tahrir member Adnan Khan. Hizb Ut Tahrir was added by the UK to its list of proscribed organizations on January 19.
In 2014, for the 2014 annual BDS event Israeli Apartheid Week at Cambridge University, Dattani allegedly participated in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign panel on “Apartheid in Palestine/Israel: Reality, Legality and Resistance.”Dattani had shared the event with Ben White, whom the Anti-Defamation League has criticized for calling for the dismantlement of Israel, saying it has exploited the memory of the Holocaust, and defending former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls for destroying Israel.A 2015 London School of Economics Students’ Union Palestine Society (LSESU PalSoc) event attended by Dattani, who also went by his middle name Mujahid, discussed “Apartheid in the Levant” from an international law perspective.In 2015, LSESU PalSoc claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that Dattani had said, “Because the international community has failed to hold Israel to account, people have turned to BDS.”Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said Dattani had shared articles on social media, comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.
Pro-Israel Jewish organizations react
Last Thursday, pro-Israel Jewish organizations called for the rescinding of Dattani’s appointment in light of the revelations.In a joint statement, CIJA and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said Dattani was “not suitable for this critical position at the CHRC.”B’nai Brith Canada said at a time of rising antisemitism in Canada, it was essential that the CHRC represented Canadian values.Last Wednesday, the Yukon Human Rights Commission, on which Dattani previously served as director, said criticisms against Dattani were about things he had done almost a decade ago when he was a student. More recently, Dattani had shown himself in the Yukon “to be exceedingly knowledgeable, hardworking, innovative, highly empathetic to all communities,” it said in a statement.Last Tuesday, Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJVC) said the accusations against Dattani were made in “bad faith” and were “thinly veiled [and] politically motivated efforts to shield Israel” from criticism.Dattani’s paper on terrorism was about academic analysis, not support of the strategy, IJVC said, adding that there was “nothing wrong or antisemitic about supporting BDS, and suggesting otherwise smacks of Anti-Palestinian Racism.”Last Friday, Housefather said he was pleased that an independent investigation of Dattani had been opened, but “ultimately, the only way to withdraw Mr. Dattani’s nomination is through him voluntarily stepping down or an act of Parliament.”Housefather on Wednesday said he wished for the investigation to explore not just Dattani’s conduct but the failures in disclosure and the Justice Ministry’s vetting process.Thornhill MP Melissa Lantsman (Conservative) on Saturday called for a public investigation involving the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. Virani and Housefather were attempting to protect themselves with an internal investigation, she said.Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley MP Marty Morantz on Thursday said Housefather was blocking the investigation’s move back to the committee.Last Wednesday, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre said: “Trudeau Liberals appoint an antisemite who compared Israelis to Nazis as head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Liberal MP Housefather could agree to recall [to] committee to investigate this grotesque appointment, but he won’t. The NDP [New Democratic Party] and Bloc [Quebecois] could too, but they won’t.”