Former Canadian Human Rights commissioner Birju Dattani is suing Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman, accusing her and others of leading a “strategic, deliberate, and malicious” campaign against him.
The lawsuits were filed Monday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and Dattani’s lawyer posted documents online.
“By spreading these poisonous allegations during a defining moment in Mr. Dattani’s career, MP Lantsman ensured that her false representations discredited Mr. Dattani,” according to the statement of claim.
Immediately after Dattani’s June 2024 appointment, Conservatives and Jewish advocacy groups condemned his selection and called for his resignation.
Dattani, who was heralded as the first Muslim to head the commission, denied the allegations and resigned before officially assuming the role.
“MP Lantsman deliberately used some of the most harmful language possible to undermine Mr. Dattani’s otherwise stellar reputation,” the lawsuit alleges.
None of the allegations have been proven in court and the defendants have not filed statements of defence. Lantsman and another organization involved in the defamation claims, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), denies the allegations.
The lawsuit cites Lantsman’s online and other social media posts, such as this one made shortly after Dattani’s appointment.
“Another antisemite gets promoted by Trudeau. Birju Dattani, known for perpetuating hate toward Jews, has been appointed Chief of the Canadian Human Rights Commission,” reads the June 25, 2024, Instagram post, which the lawsuit quotes.
The lawsuit also notes another post on X that Lantsman made two days later.
“Spineless Liberals Trudeau’s new human rights commissioner has a grotesque anti-Israel record,” it reads.
Lantsman and other Jewish advocacy groups flagged comments Dattani made in the past as a student, along with a 2015 panel discussion in the U.K. where he shared the stage alongside a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic fundamentalist group.
The group seeks to establish a new caliphate and opposes Israel’s existence.
Lantsman alleged that Dattani could not objectively oversee an organization that was supposed to protect from discrimination.
At the time, Dattani denied the accusations and said he was unaware that a member of the fundamentalist group would be participating on the panel.
Lantsman calls claims baseless
Dattani also shared on social media a 2014 article that compared the treatment of Palestinians to the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War.
A grad student at the time, Dattani, posted the article without comment. He repeatedly said that he regrets doing so and disagreed with the writer’s argument.
His lawsuit alleges as a direct result of Lantsman’s defamatory posts, Dattani’s career and reputation were irreparably harmed. Dattani, his suit notes, is now a senior fellow at the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“Defamatory statements are each crafted to provoke a visceral reaction. By their plain and ordinary meaning, and through the insidious contexts in which they were presented, these statements paint a portrait of Mr. Dattani as a morally repugnant figure,” the lawsuit states.
The intention, the statement of claim alleges, was to portray Dattani as unfit to serve as Canada’s human rights chief, along with being incompetent, unprofessional and a supporter of terrorism.
Among the damages that Dattani is seeking through the lawsuit include payments amounting to $650,000 and a declaration from Lantsman that she defamed Dattani.
In a statement to CBC News, a Conservative spokesperson said Lantsman will fight the lawsuit against her.
“The controversy surrounding the appointment of Mr. Dattani by the Liberal government is a matter of public record. Ms. Lantsman will vigorously defend herself against these baseless claims,” the statement read.
Dattani also suing Ezra Levant, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs
Dattani is also pursuing similar lawsuits against the advocacy organization the CIJA and Rebel News founder Ezra Levant.
Levant did not immediately respond to CBC News’s request for comment, but CIJA sent the following statement.
“We received the statement of claim and are reviewing. What we said is sourced and factual,” said Richard Marceau, CIJA’s vice president of external affairs and general counsel.
After complaints from Lantsman and CIJA, Justice Minister Arif Virani triggered a fact-finding mission run by an outside law firm.
The report found no evidence that Dattani was antisemitic.
“Based on Mr. Dattani’s evidence, the scholarship that was reviewed and provided, we cannot find that Mr. Dattani harboured or harbours any beliefs that would be characterized as anti-Semitic or that he has demonstrated any biases (conscious or unconscious) towards Jews or Israelis,” says a segment of the report cited by Dattani in his Aug. 1 letter to Virani.
However, the report flagged that Dattani omitted the name Mujahid Dattani from his background check forms and omitted periods of unemployment.
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