The federal Liberals are standing by a newly nominated candidate in a Montreal riding that the Conservatives have accused of promoting 9/11 conspiracy theories and working to shut down Jewish student groups.

Sameer Zuberi, a former member of the student government at Montreal’s Concordia University, won the nomination for the party in the riding of Pierrefonds-Dollard this week in a closely fought race that was only decided after a recount, according to the Montreal Gazette.

But even before he was officially declared the Liberal flag-bearer, the federal Conservatives released a statement accusing Zuberi of having a history of anti-Semitic behaviour and pushing conspiracy theories about 9/11.

The Tories said that while Zuberi served as vice president of the Concordia Students Union, he helped lead a campaign to suspend Jewish student group Hillel from club status. The party also shared a screenshot of a comment Zuberi reportedly wrote on Facebook in 2011 responding to a link to a letter he wrote that was published by the Gazette about the death of Al Qaeda leader and September 11, 2001 attacks mastermind Osama bin Laden.

In the comment, Zuberi said Bin Laden’s role as mastermind of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States is “still a matter of public debate.”

When reached for comment, a Liberal Party spokesperson said Zuberi “will be a strong voice for the riding of Pierrefonds-Dollard” and argued that complaints about his candidacy raised by the Tories were “a clear attempt by Andrew Scheer to distract from the discriminatory comments that Conservative candidates have made.”

Over the past week, the Liberals have flagged past comments or social media posts from several Conservative candidates that the party has charged are problematic, including remarks in support of legislation restricting abortion rights and sharing homophobic, transphobic and anti-Muslim comments online.

Also, Conservative candidate Cameron Ogilvie withdrew from the race in Winnipeg North last week after social media activity unearthed by PressProgress show he declared he was “proud to be white” and shared anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim content.

However, the Liberals in August dropped former imam Hassan Guillet as their candidate in the Montreal riding Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel after Canada’s chapter of B’nai Brith and the Conservatives alleged he had a history of making antisemitic comments.

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In a Facebook post on Saturday, Zuberi denied the allegations levelled by the Conservatives as “blatantly false,” saying “it obviously is and has always been clear to me that Osama bin Laden was the perpetrator of the September 11 terror attacks.” He also claimed to have written a letter that was published on May 3, 2011 in both the Globe and Mail and the Montreal Gazette which included the passage: “the death of Osama bin Laden is a welcomed event.”

He said that during his time in student government in Concordia, he “always carried out my duties faithfully, in accordance with the votes taken by the Concordia Student Union, even when I personally disagreed with them,” noting that he was not a voting member on the Student Union.

Zuberi also pointed out that in Dec. 2018 and Jan. 2019 he was invited by the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jewish institution based in Israel, to take part in their interfaith Fellowship program in Jerusalem, and shared a comment from a Montreal rabbi praising him as “sensitive to the concerns of the Jewish community.”

“In my advocacy against discrimination, I have worked with all faith communities order to respond to the rise of far-right extremism. And I will always continue to do so,” he wrote on Facebook.

“I’m running in an open nomination in Pierrefonds-Dollard to represent all community members who live in the riding, regardless of background.”

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