Arab group loses appeal on federal funding cut

An appeal court has upheld the Conservative government’s decision to cut funding to a “radical and anti-Semitic” Arab-Canadian group once headed by a Liberal candidate.

In 2009, then-Citizenship and Immigration minister Jason Kenney cut $1 million in annual funding to the Canadian Arab Federation, arguing that the group’s leadership had repeatedly expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Federation had a long track record of “expressing hateful, anti-Semitic views, and glorifying terrorists,” said Kenney in a Wednesday email to the National Post.

The group has subsequently failed in two lawsuits to have the funding reinstated. The Federal Court upheld Kenney’s decision in 2014, followed more recently by the Federal Court of Appeal.

“I have been on public record disagreeing with the approach taken by the current administration of the Canadian Arab Federation,” said Omar Alghabra, Liberal candidate for Mississauga Centre and a president of the group in 2004 and 2005.

“At the end of the day, it’s government’s prerogative to make decisions on what to fund and what not to fund.”

The Canadian Arab Federation had been paid an annual sum of $1 million in exchange for providing language-training services to new immigrants.

In severing ties with the group, Kenney’s office had cited several specific incidents, including a CAF executive attending a Cairo conference where Hamas and Hezbollah delegates were present, and a CAF-organized rally in which the Hezbollah flag was flown.

Last year, a decision by Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn said that, based on the ministry’s evidence, “CAF appears to support organizations that Canada has declared to be terrorist organizations and which are arguably anti-Semitic.”

The most recent court decision, released by the Federal Appeal Court in July, rejected CAF claims that Kenney’s decision was an “abuse of authority” or “a blatant attempt to suppress criticism of Israel.”

Paul Champ, a lawyer for CAF, said they are “seriously considering ” taking the case to the Supreme Court.

Alghabra is a policy adviser to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and was elected MP for Mississauga-Erindale in 2006 but lost to Conservative Bob Dechert in 2008 and 2011.

Although Kenney noted on Wednesday that Alghabra had not been at the helm of the CAF in 2009, he said the ex-MP “criticized my decision to defund CAF.”

“Given the upcoming federal election, Liberal and NDP candidates must answer whether they still believe that we should give millions of tax dollars to groups whose leadership promotes anti-Semitism, and who express support for banned terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah,” he said.

Alghabra noted that the Conservatives once had cosy ties with the CAF and invited the group to the 2005 party convention in Montreal.