Liberal Party candidate Hassan Guillet (Global News)

August 30, 2019

B'nai Brith Canada

MONTREAL – B'nai Brith Canada has uncovered a pattern of disturbing antisemitic and anti-Israel statements made by a Liberal Party candidate running in the coming federal election on Oct. 21.

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.”

Contrary to the views espoused by Guillet, the Liberal Party’s website states that “Canada is a steadfast friend of Israel” and affirms the Party’s support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The incumbent Liberal government has also introduced a new anti-racism strategy that includes adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.

B’nai Brith reached out to the Liberal Party more than a week ago regarding Guillet and has yet to receive a response.

B’nai Brith Réclame la Disqualification d’un Candidat Libéral Possédant des Antécédents de Commentaires Antisémites