It’s been seven months since the federal government was made aware that it had awarded a lucrative training contract to a known racist and antisemite, Laith Marouf. The story broke in July 2022, after several media watchers went public about offensive tweets which Marouf had posted about Jews, Blacks, Indigenous people and French Canadians.

While his contract was eventually cancelled and his training workshops for journalists halted, serious questions have been asked ever since about what government officials knew, when they knew, why it took so long for them to take action, and how Marouf could have slipped through the vetting process so easily.

On Monday, a high-ranking civil servant from the Department of Canadian Heritage appeared before a House of Commons committee hearing into the affair. What followed was a 90-minute grilling by the committee’s MPs, who remained unimpressed and even disappointed with the answers. On today’s The CJN Daily, we’ll take you to the hearings, and also get analysis from Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who has been critical of the government’s handling of the scandal.

What we talked about:

Watch the full Standing Committee hearings on Canadian Heritage’s handling of the Laith Marouf scandal
Meet the internet expert Mark Goldberg who outed Laith Marouf, on The CJN Daily
Read why Twitter suspended Laith Marouf’s personal accounts, on The CJN.ca

Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

‘Apologies without accountability’ as MPs grill government official over the Laith Marouf scandal