TORONTO — Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the creation of a new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion to assess antisemitism in Canada during an event at the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Carney appointed seven members to the council, including Omar Alghabra, Aftab Erfan, Avnish Nanda, Marc Gold, Martine Roy, Catriona Le May Doan, and Gary LaPlante. At the announcement, Carney stated that “Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians.” The council is tasked with examining the state of antisemitism and recommending measures to strengthen inclusion and equality.
Omar Alghabra, one of the appointees, served as president of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) in 2004. That year, he criticized CanWest publications for inserting editorial language that labeled Middle Eastern groups as “terrorists” into wire service stories. “CanWest, one of the largest media conglomerates in Canada, is failing its responsibility toward all Canadians, not just Arabs and Muslims. The media has moral and ethical obligations to report the facts when it comes to news reporting, not the opinions of their editors,” Alghabra said at the time. In a 2006 interview with the Jewish Tribune, Alghabra said he “didn’t believe that Hamas wants the elimination of Israel.” In the same interview, he condemned violence against civilians but declined to denounce suicide bombing when asked directly, saying he felt the question was attempting to trap him. By 2016, during a parliamentary debate, Alghabra described Hamas as a terrorist organization. Alghabra also praised Yasser Arafat upon his death in 2004, stating: “He has played a tremendous role in highlighting the Palestinian struggle for independence and making it visible in the international arena.” The following year, he criticized then-Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair for leading the Walk with Israel event, calling it “a show of solidarity for a foreign state currently in the midst of an unresolved conflict; a country that is conducting a brutal and the longest contemporary military occupation in the world.”
Another appointee, Avnish Nanda, represented the founder of the University of Alberta Students for Justice in Palestine and a Jewish faculty member affiliated with Independent Jewish Voices in a complaint related to the university’s 2024 anti-Israel encampment. The encampment, which demanded divestment from companies with ties to Israel, was dismantled by the Edmonton Police Service two days after it began, at the university’s request.