This article originally appeared in iPolitics. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By David L. Thomas, July 5, 2024
The appointment of diehard human rights activists to commissions and tribunals only serves to undermine their credibility. It could be just virtue-signalling or some gesture of reward for past activism, but it demonstrates the government’s fundamental misunderstanding of the roles to be filled.
It was just two weeks ago when Birju Mujahid Dattani was appointed as the new chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, but already there has been a maelstrom of controversy surrounding his past activities. Prior to roles with the Alberta and Yukon human rights commissions, Dattani was a scholar in the United Kingdom during which time he spoke on numerous occasions at “Israel Apartheid Week” events at British universities about the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement and published at least one academic paper on the subject.
These allegations have certainly raised Canadian eyebrows, including those of previous justice minister David Lametti and groups such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which stated that Dattani’s appointment “undermines our confidence in the Commission’s ability to adjudicate issues of hate and discrimination.”
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