Former Liberal minister Alghabra calls Conservative criticisms over his inclusion in the anti-hate council ‘absurd political gamesmanship’
Former Liberal transport minister Omar Alghabra is defending his inclusion on—and the mandate of—the government’s new anti-hate advisory council after renewed criticism over its perceived lack of urgency from opposition critics and American officials.
“If people have criticisms of the council, its function, or even [my membership], that’s fine, but to use slander and falsehoods … it’s beneath the office that they possess and the seriousness of the issue,” Alghabra said in an interview with The Hill Times last week, calling Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s (Battle River–Crowfoot, Alta.) allegation that he lobbied on behalf of a terrorist group “absurd … political gamesmanship.”
On June 2, following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s (Nepean, Ont.) announcement of the first appointments to the newly formed Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion, Poilievre said he recalled Alghabra “lobbying me, before he was in politics, to keep Hezbollah legal.”
The council, chaired by Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller (Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Sœurs, Que.), was given an initial mandate to, among other things, reassess “the nature, scale, and drivers of antisemitism in Canada” and develop a whole-of-government response to protect Jewish Canadians.
A June 2 report from The Jerusalem Post highlighted Alghabra’s former role with the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) and a 2004 press release the group issued criticizing Canadian media for describing groups such as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade as “terrorists” in wire stories. The Palestinian group has been a listed terrorist entity in Canada since 2003. Before Alghabra’s tenure at CAF, the organization had argued against the inclusion of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah on Canada’s list of terrorist organizations.
Speaking with The Hill Times, Alghabra said Poilievre’s allegation is “obviously false,” adding that after more than 20 years in public service and politics, “my beliefs have been all on record.”
“It’s ironic that none of these accusations that I’m being accused of have evidence or proof of me ever saying anything to that level that he’s accusing me of,” Alghabra said, adding that if Poilievre believed “what he’s saying, you think that would have been an issue that should have been flagged when I was a member of cabinet.”
Alghabra was first elected as a Toronto-area MP in 2006, before losing his seat in 2008. He was re-elected in 2015, and was named to cabinet in January 2021 as transport minister. He held that role until the summer of 2023 after announcing he would not reoffer for the next election.
Poilievre’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Hill Times by publication deadline.
Alghabra said there are “many examples” of his on-the-record condemnation of antisemitism, including a 2018 letter to this publication condemning accusations of dual loyalty against then-fellow Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal, Que.) and Michael Levitt, as well as his position on “terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
In a 2016 House of Commons debate, Alghabra explicitly referred to Hamas as a “terrorist organization,” saying it would remain designated as such by Canada until it “joins [our] call for peaceful dialogue … to reach a peaceful resolution to the two-state outcome.”
“Maybe people are accustomed to political leaders throwing mud at each other, but I’m now in a post-partisan life,” Alghabra told The Hill Times. “I’ve agreed to serve my country and do the best I can using the experience and insight I have to help my fellow Canadians, and I’d like to be left out of the partisan attacks.”
However, in his first interview since being appointed to the council, Alghabra also defended its mandate amid criticism from across the aisle and south of the border, following another series of crimes targeting two Jewish-owned bakeries at the end of July, a second shooting at the United States consulate in Toronto, and a suspected arson at a kosher restaurant in Montreal the following weekend.
“Canada, you need to do better,” Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy for combating antisemitism, told The Canadian Press last week during a visit to Ottawa.
Kaploun said he chose to visit Ottawa because the U.S. is concerned about the “unbelievably high” levels of anti-Jewish hatred in Canada, comparing the spike documented in crime statistics and by Jewish organizations as “rivalling the 1933 levels in Germany”—a problem he said his country is also “confronting on a daily basis.”
Despite a slight decline in overall police-reported hate crimes, going from 920 in 2024 to 788 last year, Statistics Canada data show crimes targeting Jewish Canadians have climbed sharply in recent years. The 522 incidents recorded in 2022 rose to 959 the following year, for a total of 4,017 incidents, representing roughly two-thirds of all religion-motivated hate crimes since 2020.
Alongside urging Canada to follow the U.S. in using terrorism listings and visa revocations to bar entry to groups and individuals seeking to “sow discord,” and punishing universities that make students feel unsafe, Kaploun also criticized Carney’s decision to eliminate the position of special envoy on combating antisemitism.
In February, the federal government announced it would merge the special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism with the special representative on combating Islamophobia in favour of the new advisory council.
Alongside Alghabra, the first names Carney announced for the council were former government representative in the Senate Marc Gold, a constitutional lawyer and former law professor; Métis rights advocate and publisher Gary LaPlante; retired military officer and LGBTQ+ advocate Martine Roy; Vancouver’s former chief equity officer Aftab Erfan; Olympian Catriona Le May Doan, and Edmonton human rights lawyer Avnish Nanda. In late June, Regina Archbishop Donald Bolen and retired judge Corrine Sparks were also added to the council.
Advisory council composing ‘work plan’ on antisemitism, says Gold
The day after Kaploun’s comments, former senator Gold joined representatives from the Network of Engaged Canadian Academics (NECA) to deliver the government’s response to the group’s study, commissioned by Heritage Canada, which found that 96 per cent of the 900 Jewish students surveyed had experienced or witnessed at least one antisemitic incident during the past 12 months.
Carrie Cogan, NECA co-president and a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Ottawa, said the study, alongside a broader follow-up involving an additional 755 non-Jewish students, will help “fulfil the mandate” of the advisory council by providing concrete evidence to inform their work, including an assessment of the nature, scope, and drivers of antisemitism in Canada.”
Speaking on behalf of Miller, Gold said the report's findings are “alarming, and echo what we are seeing across Canada.”
Speaking in French, Gold said the report is crucial to understanding the prevalence of antisemitism on campus, and that Canada cannot allow antisemitism and hate to go unchecked in schools, workplaces, places of worship and communities.
In response to a question from The Hill Times about what progress the council has made on its mandate since its inaugural meeting on June 29, and when it next expects to meet, Gold said the council is “getting to know each other, and we are providing input into a work plan,” but declined to provide further details or an update on its next meeting.
Gold added that the council is taking "very seriously" its "very important task," and that "wherever antisemitism is found, it needs to be challenged.”
However, Gold declined to respond to Kaploun’s criticisms, saying he wanted to focus on the subject at hand and would leave comment to Miller and the government “if they see fit.”
Conservative critics condemned what they said was a lack of progress.
“[Six] months in, this joke of a replacement council is still doing icebreakers,” Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.) wrote on social media. “No agenda, no plan.”
Conservative heritage critic Rachael Thomas (Lethbridge, Alta.) called the lack of “serious action … an insult to Jewish Canadians.”
“Jewish Canadians are facing record levels of antisemitic hate,” Thomas wrote on X. “The Liberals’ response? Appointing pro-Palestinian advocates to a council that has met only once—and still has no agenda or work plan.”
In a post-publication statement to The Hill Times, the Department of Canadian Heritage said that since the council’s first meeting, it has begun work “to advise on key actions to tackle antisemitism” from “four directions,” including reassessing the nature and drivers of antisemitism; improving data collection on hate incidents; and measuring the effectiveness of investments in education, prevention, and community safety.
The statement did not provide an exact date for the council’s next meeting but pointed to its terms of reference, which call for “at least four official meetings” per year, with at least two in person, and “additional ad hoc meetings, as necessary.”
In response to public critiques of the council’s membership, department spokesperson Martine Courage wrote that “antisemitism and other forms of hate have no place in Canada,” and that the council “is intended to play a critical role in bringing communities together around shared values and in confronting all forms of hate and racism in Canada so that all Canadians can live without fear, in safety and dignity.”
Tackling hate requires non-Jewish voices: Alghabra
Alghabra dismissed any allegations of “ambiguity” among council members when it comes to its first mission of tackling antisemitism "head on.”
“Antisemitism is on the rise, and it is troubling and alarming to both Jewish Canadians and all thoughtful Canadians who are disturbed by the many, many incidents of antisemitic violence, hate, and demonization,” Alghabra said. “That is factual, and we should all condemn it without any hesitation.”
Alghabra added that while “there are obviously people who want to blur the line between conversations about the conflict in the Middle East and antisemitism, these are two different things.”
“Of course, there are times when people are having this debate that cross the line into antisemitism or anti-Palestinian racism, but we need to talk to each other to know where these lines are, so we can really tackle policy disagreements and have a meaningful conversation about them without promoting hate or demonizing the other.”
To have that conversation “effectively and fairly,” Alghabra said, it must also include non-Jewish Canadians.
While he categorized some criticism of the council and its membership as “partisan bickering … just looking for an opportunity to criticize the government,” he said other critiques stem from an unawareness of “what this committee’s role is,” mixed with a “toxic recipe” of “legitimate anxiety and fear, combined with misinformation.”
“This is a noble endeavour that the government has put together, and to be invited to participate is a duty I honour and cherish,” Alghabra said. “It is an honour for me to be asked to join such a group … to offer my thoughts and ideas on how we can continue to work on social cohesion, and … build a society that includes everyone.”
“I don’t claim to know everything about antisemitism, but I think I can add a voice to this conversation that reflects not only the urgency of the situation, but the need for all Canadians to take this issue personally and to work on it.”
The Hill Times
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated on Aug. 13 at 12:48 p.m. to include a comment from Canadian Heritage provided after publication.