National Post (National Edition)
Federal Conservative candidate was once in Twitter controversy
Ontario wing rejected her over tweets, sources say
A financial consultant running for the federal Conservatives in a Toronto-area riding was rejected as a candidate by the party’s own Ontario wing more than two years ago over social media posts about Muslim extremism, sources say.
Two people — a former provincial party official and a campaign organizer familiar with the situation — told the National Post the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party asked Ghada Melek to drop out of the race for the provincial nomination in Mississauga-Streetsville.
Melek denies the party rejected her, however, saying she withdrew “for personal reasons.”
She was seeking a nomination to run in the 2018 Ontario election when now-deleted tweets and retweets from her account surfaced, including some suggesting Islamic radicalism was pervasive and causing “economic hell” in places like Detroit.
Last year, Melek lobbied against what she termed an “offensive” advertisement on Mississauga city buses promoting tolerance of the hijab.
But there is “no communication” between the federal and provincial parties on potential nominees, the Ontario PC source said, and so Melek was chosen last December as the Conservative candidate for the federal riding of the same name.
“Why the federal party would be rolling that dice is beyond me,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “(If ) they don’t want to consult, it’s on them.”
Melek, a Coptic Christian immigrant from Egypt, said the Twitter posts — which date from 2013 and 2014 — were an emotional response to mass protests against her native country’s then-president, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Mohammed Morsi.
“As a Coptic Christian, I know what my family and friends often endured under Morsi and the Brotherhood, and that passion may have got the best of me at times,” she said in a statement. “While these are almost entirely retweets from more than half a decade ago, I do understand how some of them may be offensive, and I do regret that as well as retweeting them. I will always stand with Muslim Canadians.”
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s press secretary could not be reached for comment.
Melek put her name forward for the provincial nomination in Mississauga-Streetsville in October 2016, but unexpectedly dropped out in the days before the nomination vote that December, recalls MPP Nina Tangri, who won the nomination and later, the seat.
In a brief interview Tangri said that she visited Melek, who lived near her, at the time she withdrew, but did not pry about why she had stepped down.
Asked if the provincial party had asked Melek to pull out, Ontario PC spokesman Marcus Mattinson said only that records indicate Melek withdrew before the nomination vote.
In fact, the Ontario party had earlier received a lawyer’s letter outlining concerns about her candidacy, focusing on the tweets. The Post obtained that letter and other tweets that appear to come from her account — all of which appear to have since been deleted.
They included a retweet from the “American Copt” account that declares “Anywhere Islamists live it turns into an Economic Hell. Look at Detroit!!!!!”
Others link to websites — investigativeproject.org and the Clarion Project — that have been accused of promoting Islamophobia, with one of Melek’s own tweets saying “Canada’s Growing Islamic Radicalization a Warning Sign.”
Another links to a site that suggests former president Barack Obama’s Kenyan half brother — later a guest of U.S. President Donald Trump’s at a presidential debate — was an official in the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority has long suffered from systemic discrimination, and has lately been victimized by a series of terrorist attacks. Other tweets from Melek addressed the situation in Egypt, suggesting a bias by the former Obama administration against Copts and in favour of Morsi, who was toppled in a military coup.
One accuses the U.S. of sending tear gas to Egypt to “kill Copts and #MB opposition.”
The provincial party source said the Conservatives invited Melek to an interview, hoping she would have a cogent explanation for the tweets that she could employ if they became public and drew criticism.
But she “blew” the interview, leaving officials convinced she would be a liability, said the person. She was asked to step down.
The 2018 bus ad in Mississauga — sponsored by a group called the Islamic Circle of North America — featured a photo of a woman in a head scarf, the word Hijab and the line “A head covering honored by Mary, Mother of Jesus and worn by Muslim women.”
Melek said in a letter to city council members that she was offended to see “the name of a holy Christian figure being used lightly in city advertisement,” and that she did not want her native Egypt’s treatment of Christians as second-class citizens “imported to Canada.”
A report by city staff said the MiWay bus authority had received 43 complaints about the ad — 35 using the same wording — but had no grounds to refuse it.
Rabia Khedr, executive director of the Muslim Council of Peel, said she has no problem with a political debate about the hijab, but said Melek’s letter, coupled with tweets “obsessed” about extremism, suggest the candidate is determined to disparage Muslims.
“It’s just divisive politics,” she said. “She wants to galvanize a certain voter element.”
WHY THE FEDERAL PARTY WOULD BE ROLLING THAT DICE IS BEYOND ME.