Birju Dattani, chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, stands by the Yukon River in Whitehorse in 2020.Crystal Schick/Yukon News
Canada’s newly appointed human rights chief has apologized to members of the Jewish community for pain caused by tweets he posted, including one linking to an article comparing Palestinians to Jews incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Birju Dattani, former executive director of the Yukon Human Rights Commission, was appointed by Justice Minister Arif Virani as chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission earlier this month. The commission would play a key role under enhanced powers in the online harms bill in combatting hate online, including antisemitism.
Jewish advocates have expressed concern about his impartiality after it emerged he had posted tweets while studying in England under the name Mujahid Dattani, including one saying “Palestinians are Warsaw Ghetto Prisoners of Today” linking to an article of that name.
He also posted a tweet with a link to an article about summary executions, which referred to actions taken by Israel in 2014 and executions by the Nazis and other regimes.
“I didn’t say and have never said that Israelis are Nazis or Israeli policies are analogous or comparable to Nazi Germany – that I’ve always found offensive,” he told The Globe and Mail on Monday.
He said he also didn’t believe that Palestinians were like Jews incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto, adding that his views had evolved since he was a student.
But he said in an interview on Tuesday that he understood the pain and offence that posting tweets linking to these articles has caused members of the Jewish community.
“I would not do that now, and to the extent that it has caused great offence, pain and mistrust in the Jewish community, I apologize for that,” he told The Globe and Mail on Tuesday.
Melissa Lantsman, deputy leader of the Conservative Party, said that “Jewish Canadians and advocacy groups are right to condemn” the new human rights commissioner.
She said Mr. Dattani’s past activities should disqualify him from being appointed to a government position, “let alone being appointed to a position whose sole purpose is to fight racism and defend human rights.”
“It is even more concerning that the Liberal government proposes to give even more authority to individuals like this through their widely criticized legislation, Bill C-63,” Ms. Lantsman said.
Mr. Dattani did his postgraduate studies in England at the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies, where he also taught, publishing on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He was interviewed for an article in November, 2012, at a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in response to Israeli air strikes that killed, among others, the Hamas military commander Ahmad Al Jabari.
He also shared a platform while studying in England with a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist fundamentalist organization that is opposed to the existence of the state of Israel, wants to establish a Caliphate and sharia law globally, and is banned in Britain.
Mr. Dattani said he did not share the views of Hizb ut-Tahrir, nor did he know a member of the fundamentalist group would be on the platform with him.
Tamara Gottlieb, founding member of the Jewish Educators and Families Association of Canada, said Mr. Dattani’s past activities could lead to victims of antisemitism who might appeal to the human-rights commission for help questioning his impartiality.
“Public confidence in this role is vital. Someone in this position, who adjudicates human-rights matters, must be beyond reproach. The perception of bias erodes confidence in the system,” she said.
Chantalle Aubertin, a spokeswoman for Mr. Virani, said when he appointed Mr. Dattani, the minister was not informed of the tweets he had posted.
“Mr. Dattani did not disclose the posts, attributed statements and events to our office as part of the appointment process. Nor was our office aware of his using an alternate name,” she said in a statement on Tuesday. “These issues were not identified through internal due diligence processes. This was due, in part, to not having the name used at the material time, and has prompted us to review our policies.”
Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said: “While we understand it was unintentional and that a name change may have made his background more opaque, governments have a responsibility to do a much better job of vetting potential appointments. We look forward to learning of the conclusions reached by the government following its review.”
The Canadian Human Rights Commission would gain a central role in combatting online hate under the online harms bill now going through Parliament. If passed, it would give people the ability to make complaints under the Canadian Human Rights Act about hate speech to the commission.
Complaints deemed valid would be forwarded to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to assess. The tribunal could demand that a post be taken down or that the victim of a hateful post gain up to $20,000 in compensation.
Michael Geist, the University of Ottawa’s Canada Research Chair in Internet Law, said “public confidence that enforcement will be fair and unbiased” is essential and he understood concerns about impartiality from members of the Jewish community.
“Appointing a chair whose past activities raise serious concerns about impartiality and fairness toward the very group that has faced by far the largest number of incidents of hate in Canada is untenable and severely undermines the government’s plans to counter online harms,” he said.