Why was Khaled Mouammar, head of the Canadian Arab Federation, on the refugee board???

Who hired him? Why was he hired? How did he pass security reviews???

Mouammar’s intemperate language should not be the focus of the greatest public concern. It is his apparent tolerance -- and promotion -- of the interests of known terrorist organizations that should cause public worry.

According to the Canadian Jewish Congress, Mouammar lobbied Ottawa to remove Hezbollah from Canada’s list of terrorist organizations. According to Kenney, the leader of the CAF circulated videos depicting the inculcation of hatred in children by organizations such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Furthermore, according to published reports, the CAF’s anti-Israel demonstrations unabashedly feature people waving the flags of organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, both listed as terrorist organizations.

What is truly frightening is that this is the political fabric of a man who, for years, sat on Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board judging refugee claims. A big part of his job would have been to exclude from protection people who are suspected of being members of terrorist organizations. It shocks me that a person who is capable of acting so injudiciously, who behaves in a manner that is so contrary to the interests of the community that he serves, and who advocates for the interests of organizations that are internationally recognized as terrorist, was appointed to a board entrusted to protect Canadians from the very people he appears to be so sympathetic towards.

Mouammar’s values don’t seem “Canadian” at all to me. He should never have had a seat on our Immigration and Refugee Board. However, whether he deserves the seat of leadership of a Canadian federation of Arab organizations is not for me, but for others, to decide.