After Public Outcry, Liberals Disqualify Candidate Accused Of Antisemitism

UPDATE: After facing a week of criticism, the Liberals have removed Guillet.

B’nai Brith had called for Hassan Guillet to be removed, and notified the Liberals over a week ago.

B’nai Brith says they reached out to the Liberals a week ago regarding candidate Hassan Guillet, an Islamic religious leader who B’nai Brith says has a pattern of “disturbing antisemtic and anti-Israel statements.”

Here’s part of what B’nai Brith said in a press release:

“Hassan Guillet, an Islamic religious leader who gained international attention for speaking out in the aftermath of the Quebec City mosque attack of 2017, is currently the Liberal Party nominee for the riding of Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel in Montreal.

B’nai Brith is shocked by a number of his statements over the past few years and believes they must preclude his candidacy.

In January of 2017, Guillet celebrated the release of Raed Salah, a Hamas-aligned activist who has accused Jews of staging the 9/11 terror attacks and has claimed that Jews use children’s blood for baking “holy bread.” The candidate went on to hail Salah as a “jihad-fighter” and “frontier-fighter” whom “Allah will surely support.” Guillet offered his congratulations to Salah on being freed from “the prisons of occupied Palestine,” and prayed that he will some day be successful in the fight to liberate “the whole of Palestine.” Salah had been serving a nine-month prison term in Israel for “incitement to violence and racism.”

These posts no longer appear on Guillet’s social media.

In a late 2017 interview with Radio Canada International, Guillet called Israel an apartheid state. Guillet also accused Jared Kushner, the Jewish son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, of directing his government to support an “Israel first” agenda. He accused Kushner of dual loyalty because of his Jewish background and inaccurately described him as an “ultra-Orthodox” and “fundamentalist” Jew.

Guillet has also stated on Facebook that “the Zionists control American politics,” promoting the common antisemitic trope of Jews manipulating world governments.”

“The antisemitic tropes of ‘Zionists controlling governments’ and of ‘dual loyalty’ are two of the more abhorrent expressions of paranoid anti-Jewish conspiracy theories,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “Radical and racist statements such as these must result in the immediate disqualification of a candidate for political office. It is unacceptable for any candidate to speak in this deplorable fashion toward any religious minority.”

Despite having reached out to the Liberals, B’nai Brith said they have not received a response.

However, not long ago, the Liberals disqualified Guillet.

This is incredibly disturbing. Racism and antisemitism has ZERO place in Canadian politics, and the Liberals should have taken action much earlier.

Also, the near-total lack of media coverage is disgraceful. The establishment press is glad to make up controversies about the Conservatives, yet when a Liberal candidate faces allegations of antisemitism, there was very little coverage.

Regardless of media coverage, the right thing done late is better than the right thing done never, and the Liberals were right to boot Guillet.

Of course, Guillet’s comments should have been flagged much earlier, and many will wonder how he even made it so far in the candidate process.Has

Spencer Fernando

Photo – YouTube