The newly-appointed Canadian Human Rights Commission Chief Commissioner Birju Dattani is a past advocate of Qur’an readings at the University of Calgary campus and a local high school.Dattani is former president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at the university, per Blacklock’s Reporter. He was appointed chief commissioner by the Trudeau Liberals June 11 to the tune of $394,000-a year. The commission on Wednesday did not comment when asked about Dattani’s past advocacy for Muslim prayer in schools.Opposition MPs questioned Dattani’s fitness as commissioner on other grounds stemming from his MSA activities at the London School of Economics 10 years ago. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs identified Dattani as a participant at an anti-Israel protest in England.Bloc Québécois MP Rhéal Fortin said Dattani could not remain in office. “He has already lost the trust of the population he is supposed to represent and protect from discrimination. It seems clear to us he can no longer carry out his mandate,” said Fortin. Tory MPs in a statement said the Commons Justice Committee should investigate Dattani’s appointment.“This appointment will only embolden those who spread hatred and violence towards Jewish Canadians,” wrote MPs.Dattani in 2004 protested when members of the Muslim association were charged standard fees to rent a prayer room on campus.“This is a blatant denial of reality. They insulted not only the Muslim population on campus but anyone who subscribes to any religion at all,” he told the Calgary Herald at the time.The University subsequently installed a prayer room in 2006.“(It) brought a tear to my eye,” Dattani told reporters.Dattani as a “legal Islamic academic” also testified as an expert witness in Amir v. Webber Academy, a 2015 Alberta Human Rights Tribunal case in which Muslim parents successfully overturned a prayer ban at a private Calgary high school.He testified Muslims should “be permitted to carry out their prayer on Webber Academy’s campus in a space sufficiently large to allow the children to bow, kneel and stand safely,” according to tribunal records. Prayers typically involved the reading of short passages from the Qur’an and pleas to Allah, the tribunal was told.Dattani testified “to give evidence about the practice of prayer in the Muslim religion,” explaining “there were five mandatory prayers, each of which is to be performed within a specific time range,” according to records. Muslim parents won the case.The Globe & Mail also documented now-deleted social media posts in which Dattani expressed approval for articles comparing Israel to the German Third Reigh and claims that Palestinians were “the Warsaw Ghetto prisoners of today.” He later apologized for endorsing the messages.
