Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller’s office approved a Canada Summer Student grant application by a Montréal group linked to anti-Semitic slurs. Cabinet at the time required applicants to swear an oath to “respect individual human rights.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, Miller’s office did not comment. Records show a 2018 grant application worth $2,882 was approved for the Community Media Advocacy Centre located in Miller’s riding in Ville-Marie, Que..Cabinet in 2018 enforced a new policy mandating that all Canada Summer Jobs grant applicants sign a government oath stating: “Both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada including the values underlying the Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms as well as other rights.”.Grant applications are categorized by constituency and submitted to individual MPs for approval. Applicants in 2017 were required to sign an oath recognizing “sexual and reproductive rights and the right to access safe and legal abortions,” a measure that prompted federal lawsuits after three Liberal MPs in Ontario rejected applications from Christian charities over church views on abortion and same-sex marriage..The Canada Summer Jobs program is typically oversubscribed. A total 2,031 applications were rejected in the period from 2018 to 2020, by official estimate..Minister Miller’s office would not explain why it approved the Advocacy Centre grant application or what if any background check was done on organizers. The Advocacy Centre’s senior consultant Laith Marouf had a “20-plus year history of making outrageous and hateful statements,” the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said August 22..Marouf in a series of social media posts described Jews as “low-voiced bitches” and “human garbage.” “Zionism is Jewish white supremacy, is imperialism, is genocide,” he wrote..“Long ago I stopped sharing works of Jewish white people,” Marouf wrote in one Twitter post. “When we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they came from they will return to being low voiced bitches of their Christian/secular white supremacist masters,” he wrote in another..Records show Marouf as a Concordia University student in 2001 was expelled over allegations he painted anti-Israeli graffiti on public property. Marouf on his LinkedIn page described himself as a “longtime multimedia consultant and producer.”.Marouf’s Advocacy Centre in 2021 received a $16,815 payment order from the CRTC “as a non-profit organization that represents the interests of people with disabilities who are Indigenous or racialized.” The Centre also received a $133,822 grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage to conduct anti-racism workshops.
