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August 19th, 2022

Liberals must come clean about vetting process

NDP Critic for Canadian Heritage Peter Julian issued the following statement:

"It has come to our attention that a consultant for a federally funded anti-racism project appears to have a disturbing track record of spewing hate speech online against Jewish and francophone communities. This is completely unacceptable. We call on the Minister of Heritage to take drastic action and terminate his contract.

The Minister must also come clean about the vetting process in granting contracts. How did an individual who had his Twitter account allegedly suspended for hate speech end up with a government contract? The lack of due diligence is concerning, and Canadians deserve transparency and accountability.

Each one of us has a responsibility to act in the fight against antisemitism, racism and all forms of hate. Tolerating hate speech is complicity - it must stop. We have witnessed too much race-based violence in recent months against Canadian Jews, Muslims, Asians, Black and Indigenous peoples.

That is why New Democrats tabled two bills to ban symbols of hate in Canada and to hold web giants accountable for their algorithms that spread hate online. We will continue to work with communities to fight against hate and discrimination in all its forms."