Calgary multicultural council member resigns

(JNS) — In one image, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is shown, with a Star of David on his forehead, consuming children’s blood. “Can’t get enough,” a caption reads. Another post praised a convicted terrorist and a third included a video declaring the Holocaust a hoax.

These were among the items that Canadian realtor Tariq Khan, a realtor in Canada, posted on social media. Khan, a failed 2021 city council candidate in Calgary—the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta—was also a member of Calgary’s multicultural council, from which he has now resigned.

He apologized for the posts, which he said were 10 years old, and for causing “hurt to the Jewish community” via Twitter on April 19.

“We will go back and take a look at our process and show that we close whatever gap that existed that made it impossible for us to catch this serious error,” said Kaycee Madu, Alberta’s deputy premier.

Alberta opposition leader Rachel Notley countered by saying that “it’s either demonstrative of next-level incompetence from the premier’s office, or it’s demonstrative of a genuine desire to divide and discriminate and promote racism.”

Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, told JNS: “Those who propagate antisemitic myths and Holocaust denialism have no place in the public sphere. At a time when, according to B’nai Brith Canada’s recently released Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, including those occurring online, continued to occur at an alarming rate in 2022, ignoring past acts of antisemitism only normalizes such behavior. The Alberta Government should follow the precedent set in Ontario where Holocaust education in the sixth grade was made mandatory.”