New human rights commissioner resigns before starting role
Canada's human rights commissioner Birju Dattani has resigned before ever officially starting the job, according to a post on his LinkedIn account.
Dattani agreed to go on leave last week - the day be‐ fore he was set to officially begin his role - following complaints about past com‐ ments and actions of his that were called antisemitic by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).
"I remain a steadfast be‐ liever in the Commission's work, mandate, and its im‐ portance to our democracy," Dattani posted on LinkedIn on Monday.
The complaints triggered a fact-finding mission initi‐ ated by Justice Minister Arif Virani and run by the firm Fil‐ ion Wakely Angeletti LLP. They submitted their report to Virani on July 31.
"The findings speak for themselves," Virani said in a media statement. "I received Mr. Dattani's submissions in response to the report on August 1, 2024. I have ac‐ cepted Mr. Dattani's decision to step down as Chief Com‐ missioner. As I have said, maintaining the confidence of all Canadians in the Cana‐ dian Human Rights Commis‐ sion remains my top prior‐ ity."
Virani added that the search for a new commis‐ sioner will begin as soon as possible and the interim commissioner, CharlotteAnne Malischewski, will con‐ tinue to serve in the role in the meantime.
Virani's press secretary Chantalle Aubertin replied "no comment" when asked if Dattani was paid during his leave or received a compen‐ sation package after resign‐ ing.
CIJA has pointed out that Dattani used the name "Mu‐ jahid Dattani" in some of his online activities and speaking engagements, a name that was not covered by the initial Privy Council Office (PCO) background check.
The report's findings state that, "on a balance of proba‐ bilities and based on the to‐ tality of evidence," Dattani omitted the name Mujahid Dattani from his background check forms and omitted pe‐ riods of unemployment.
The report does not offer advice on whether Dattani should continue in the role of human rights commissioner.
The report also says there is no evidence that Dattani is antisemitic.
"Based on Mr. Dattani's evidence, the scholarship that was reviewed and provided, we cannot find that Mr. Dattani harboured or harbours any beliefs that would be characterized as anti-Semitic or that he has demonstrated any biases (conscious or unconscious) towards Jews or Israelis," says a segment of the report cited by Dattani in his Aug. 1 letter to Virani.
Another excerpt of the re‐ port cited by Dattani says he has a "high degree of selfawareness and sensitivity" regarding the challenges faced by Canadian Jews.
Deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman took to X, the social media platform formally known as Twitter, to call for an investi‐ gation into how Dattani was hired.
"A welcomed announce‐ ment - one that was made way too late. Antisemites should hold no position in Canada's government - espe‐ cially one entrusting them to safeguard Canadians' rights and freedoms, including the right to worship and the right to free speech," she said.
Richard Marceau, CIJA's vice-president of external af‐ fairs and general counsel, said it's a "good thing" that Dattani resigned.
"The Jewish community had lost confidence in him to occupy that position, which is so important at this period where we're seeing sky-high levels of antisemitism," he told CBC News. "It was the right thing to do."
B'nai Brith Canada and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, other Jewish advo‐ cacy groups, also applauded Dattani's resignation.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) said it is still reviewing the re‐ port.
"As we stated from the outset, we find that the witch-hunt against Mr. Dat‐ tani to have been utterly un‐ acceptable, and motivated, as the 'context' suggestion of the third party report sug‐ gests, by political considera‐ tions about the ongoing con‐ flict versus anything else," NCCM advocacy officer Fatema Abdella wrote in an emailed statement.
"We are disappointed that yet another racialized mi‐ nority has had to go through national attacks on their per‐ son based on allegations of hate that turned out to be unfounded, and we are sure that the Government of Canada realizes the danger‐ ous precedent that has been established here: it is fine to drag every appointee through the mud as long as they're brown or Muslim."
A second name and soci‐ al media
In Dattani's letter to Virani, he says he was raised Hindu but became Muslim in 2001 and adopted the name Mu‐ jahid. Dattani says that in 2017 he chose to again go by his given name of Birju Dat‐ tani, but Mujahid remains part of his identity.
Dattani says in his letter that he misinterpreted the in‐ tent of some of the boxes in the background check form and accuses the investigator of "glazing over" his explana‐ tion.
"We do not accept Mr. Dattani's suggestion that his choice of name was some‐ times 'just whimsical'. Mr. Dattani was strikingly thoughtful in respect of what names he chose to use and when," the fact-finding report states.
Dattani used the name "Mujahid Dattani" in a hand‐ ful of advertised speaking en‐ gagements in 2015 on the Middle East, as outlined in the report.
At one of these events, Dattani recalled a fellow pan‐ ellist saying "we need a caliphate again." He said he told the investigators he could not remember who made the comment.
CIJA pointed to a blog post alleging that when he was an academic, Dattani posted ar‐ ticles on X that compared Is‐ rael to Nazi Germany. The posts and Dattani's account appear to have been deleted. CBC News has not indepen‐ dently viewed the alleged posts.
Dattani previously told
CBC News that he shared the post, titled "Palestinians are Warsaw Ghetto Prisoners of Today," in order to generate conversation.
In his letter to Virani, Dat‐ tani states that he deleted his Twitter account eight years ago and would go back and provide more context on the intent of his posts if he could.
Dattani cited excerpts from the fact-finding report which say he "deliberately de-emphasized" and "made attempts to downplay" how his academic work was criti‐ cal of Israel.
In his submission, Dattani criticized those statements as "subjective" and said they lacked evidence.
The report states that while Dattani's past involve‐ ment in advocacy and criti‐ cism of Israel would not nec‐ essarily have interfered in his ability to do the job of hu‐ man rights commissioner, he should have been more forthcoming in the applica‐ tion phase.
"Mr. Dattani's efforts to downplay the critical nature of his work was concerning and, certainly, his failure to directly disclose this work de‐ prived the Government of the opportunity to have a dis‐ cussion with Mr. Dattani about what, if any, impact his scholarship and perspective would or could have if he were appointed to the role of Chief Commissioner," the re‐ port says.