IRFAN’s links to Hamas has been long established. The former Conservative government revoked IRFAN’s charity status and labeled it a terrorist organization. A National Post article written six years ago states:
“We are determined to stop Canadian funds from getting in the hands of terrorist groups,” said RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia. “We continue to work diligently with our partners to investigate and disrupt organizations from misusing charitable donations to find terrorist activity.”
A non-profit group that worked mostly in Muslim countries, IRFAN-Canada lost its charity status in 2011 after Canada Revenue Agency auditors called it an “integral part” of an international fundraising effort that supported Hamas.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Tuesday that IRFAN-Canada had “for many years” funded Hamas. “The well intentioned and charitable Canadians who sought to support humanitarian relief through this organization deserve better.”
The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, brought Islamic Relief right into the mainstream. Islamic Relief, along with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (originally CAIR-CAN), was also included in a Liberal government 23-million-dollar initiative to “monitor citizens for compliance” to make sure they adhered to “anti-Islamophobia” motion M-103, and which designated money for the training of law enforcement officers to recognize online and offline “hate.” All in the name of “diversity” and “inclusion” — exactly what normative Islam has no respect for.
“It is extremely important for the government to monitor any funds allocated to Islamic Relief to ensure they are only used to provide aid for the people of Lebanon and do not end up in the wrong hands,” said Rabbi Meyer May, Executive Director of Simon Wiesenthal Center.
This is precisely why the former Conservative government designated the group a terrorist organization many years ago.
“FSWC Calls on Canada to Monitor Beirut Relief Funds Distributed to Group with Alleged Hamas Ties,” Friends of Simon Wiesenthal, August 10, 2020:
Toronto (August 10, 2020) – Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is calling on the Canadian government to monitor the expenditure of public money allocated to Islamic Relief, which is part of a “Humanitarian Coalition” of charities to assist with Beirut disaster relief, due to its alleged ties to the terror group Hamas and history of antisemitism.
According to Global Affairs Canada, the government is matching every dollar donated to the coalition of charities through its Lebanon Matching Fund, which will provide up to $2 million “to the Humanitarian Coalition, which will in turn allocate the funds among its members based on criteria such as their capacity and presence in the affected region.”
In a letter sent to Minister of Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne and Minister of International Development Karina Gould, FSWC’s Director of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, wrote, “For a number of years, Islamic Relief has faced allegations from Germany, Israel, UAE – as well as other countries and major global institutions – that the organization has ties to extremist and/or terrorist groups including Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood. There also exists extensive evidence of extremism and antisemitism on the part of Islamic Relief global leadership, highlighted most recently by comments made by Islamic Relief Worldwide Director Heshmat Khalifa, who referred to Jews in a Facebook post as the ‘grandchildren of monkeys and pigs.'”….