A Federal Court judge has ruled that former immigration minister Jason Kenney acted reasonably when he cut federal funding to the Canadian Arab Federation because it appeared to support the actions of terrorist organizations.

Justice Russel Zinn dismissed the CAF’s challenge of Kenney’s decision to not provide funding to the group for a language instruction program in 2009-2010.

The decision is a “vindication of common sense”, says Kenney, who is now minister of employment and social development as well as minister of multiculturalism.

“Groups who express apparently hateful views or who defend terrorist organizations should not receive taxpayer funding, period,” Kenney said in an email to the Star.

“This is especially true for organizations charged with the integration of newcomers. It is disturbing to think that this was not always government policy.

“I’m pleased that the court has deemed my decision to de-fund CAF ‘reasonable,’ and upheld the responsibility of elected officials to ensure the prudent expenditure of taxpayers’ money.”

“The Canadian Arab Federation is in the process of appealing the decision and will not make any public statements regarding the decision for the duration of this process” Dr. Farid Ayad, national president of the Canadian Arab Federation, said Tuesday evening.

The controversy surrounding the funding of the language program at the Canadian Arab Federation reared its head in early 2009.

Justice Zinn writes in his decision that “upon the minister becoming aware, he emailed his chief of staff expressing his position on CAF and the funding agreement.”

Kenney told his chief of staff to “please ask the department to bring forward complete information on the contribution embarrassingly approved by our government for the radical and anti-Semitic Canadian Arab Federation.

“This is the same group whose president attacked Bob Rae because his wife is Jewish, and who now is calling me a ‘professional prostitute.’ (I guess that’s better than being an amateur!)”

In February, 2009 Kenney told Parliament during question period that “the Government of Canada should take a zero tolerance approach to organizations that make excuses for terrorism, for violence, for hatred and for anti-Semitism,” according to the court decision.

“From our point of view, these groups do not deserve and have no right to taxpayers’ dollars to promote their kind of extremism,” Kenney said.

A month later in March, Citizenship and Immigration told the CAF that statements made by its officials appeared to be anti-Semitic and supported terrorist groups.

The letter, addressed to Khaled Mouammar, president of the CAF, said that “serious concerns have arisen with respect to certain public statements that have been made by yourself or other officials of the CAF. These statements have included the promotion of hatred, anti-Semitism and support for the banned terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are on the Canadian government’s list of groups “associated with terrorism,” according to the public safety department’s website.

The letter went on to say that these public statements raise “serious questions about the integrity of your organization and has undermined the government’s confidence in the CAF as an appropriate partner for the delivery of settlement services to newcomers.”

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According to the federal court decision, it is the minister’s position that the language program offers newcomers much more than just training but also provides them with an orientation to the Canadian way of life including “social, economic, cultural and political integration” and so the suitability of the program provider is critical.

The CAF argued that the statements in question were either made by people who did not officially represent the organization or that it didn’t authorize the comments.

But Zinn ruled that the statements could reasonably lead one to come to the same conclusions as the minister about the Canadian Arab Federation.

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