Former CHRC chief sues MP Melissa Lantsman, Ezra Levant and Jewish advocacy group for defamation

A man who was briefly appointed to be Canada’s chief human rights commissioner last summer before resigning over accusations of antisemitism and support for terrorist entities is now suing those who made the claims against him. 

Birju Dattani, the former head of the Yukon territory’s human rights commission, was appointed to the role of Canada’s chief human rights commissioner last June but held the position for just days before stepping down. 

Dattani’s appointment was marred by strong criticism over comments and activities from his past that many called antisemitic. 

He resigned four days after his official role as commissioner began and a third-party investigation was launched into accusations of his past support for terrorist organizations. 

The report was later made public and found no validity to the allegations of terrorist support, sympathy, antisemitism or bias against Jewish people.

“Despite the report’s unequivocal conclusion on these points, the vicious public attacks by a number of groups and individuals persisted in the following days and weeks,” said Dattani at a press conference on Parliament Hill Thursday. 

“I have launched defamation lawsuits against those who spearheaded a targeted attack against me this past summer: Conservative Member of Parliament Melissa Lantsman, right-wing media personality Ezra Levant and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).”

Dattani’s lawsuit is seeking $650,000 against Levant, $500,000 against Lantsman and $450,000 against the CIJA in general damages as well as $150,000 from each of the three parties in aggravated damages. 

“By spreading these poisonous allegations during a defining moment in Mr. Dattani’s career, MP Lantsman ensured that her false representations discredited Mr. Dattani,” reads the statement of claim against Lanstman. “MP Lantsman deliberately used some of the most harmful language possible to undermine Mr. Dattani’s otherwise stellar reputation.”

Lantsman accused Dattani of having a “grotesque anti-semitism record” at the time.

CIJA responded to the lawsuit by saying that its past accusations against Dattani were “sourced and factual.”

Levant responded to the lawsuit by launching a funding campaign for his legal fees Thursday in which he referred to Dattani as “Trudeau’s disgraced, antisemitic censor.”

The lawsuit also seeks to have each of the three parties make declarations that they defamed Dattani. 

In 2015, Dattani shared a stage with a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic fundamentalist group that is listed as a terrorist entity in the U.K. and Germany. An international organization of imams is calling for the Canadian government to recognize that designation as well. 

Dattani also spoke at a series of “Israel Apartheid Week” events at British universities, promoting the boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) of Israel.

News Line, a Marxist outlet, quoted Dattani saying “workers should boycott Israel and Israeli goods,” at the protest.

There were also concerns over his affiliations and previous comments made on social media under the name “Mujahid Dattani.”

The Trudeau government initially claimed not to know anything about Dattani’s past amid the growing backlash of his appointment. But it would later rescind that claim after a spokesperson for Justice Minister Arif Virani confirmed that Dattani did reveal that he used an alias online.

However, the government’s investigation into Dattani’s past ultimately ruled the accusations against him to be false. “While some may take issue with Mr. Dattani’s scholarship that we have been provided, the sources he relies upon in that scholarship, and his criticism of the State of Israel, he has not demonstrated any intentions or actions that suggest he is anti-Semitic or has beliefs that could be characterized as anti-Semitic,” reads the government’s report released in July.