Don’t attend, Justin

Promoting multiculturalism and dialogue between Canada’s diverse ethnic communities is all to the good, but federal politicians need to choose wisely before they embrace a particularcommunitygroup.In particular, Liberal party leadership candidate Justin Trudeau should bewary of the company he keeps.

Trudeau is under fire for agreeing to give the keynote speech at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference, slated for Dec. 22 in Toronto. The conference is partly sponsored by IRFAN-Canada, a group stripped of its charity status in late 2010 because it is linked with Hamas.

According to documents from Canada Revenue Agency, IRFAN- Canada “provided$ 14.6 million in resources to operat- ing partners that were run by officials of Hamas (and) openly supported and provided funding to Hamas.”

Trudeau says he’s proud to be speaking at the conference and pointed out that Prime Minister Stephen Harper sent a congratulatory message to organizers of the annual conference last year, and that the late NDP leader Jack Layton spoke at a prior conference.

It would behoove politicians of all stripes to scrutinize these types of invitations more closely before accepting. Citing Harper’s and Layton’s past involvement does not take away the fact that Trudeau has the opportunity to distance himself now from a group with ties to the terrorist organization Hamas, and decline to attend. It is the right thing to do.