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The newly appointed chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission agreed to resign on Monday following an investigation into his past statements about Israel.
The attorney general launched the external investigation after Canadian Jewish organizations raised concerns about Birju Dattani’s past conduct, including allegations of anti-Israel rhetoric.
The law firm that conducted the investigation found no indication that Dartani had ever or currently held anti-Semitic beliefs, nor any evidence that he had any unconscious or conscious bias against Jews or Israelis.
“In reviewing Mr. Datani’s academic work, he was critical of Israel, particularly its treatment of the Palestinians,” the law firm concluded in its report made public on Monday.
However, the investigation found he “deliberately played down” the criticisms when he was asked about them.
“To be clear, we do not believe that Mr. Dattani’s involvement in advocacy and criticism necessarily disqualifies him from the position of Chief Commissioner,” the report states.
“However, Mr. Dattani’s attempts to downplay the importance of his work are concerning, and his failure to disclose that work directly certainly deprives the government of the opportunity to engage in discussions with Mr. Dattani about the impact his knowledge and perspectives would have if he were appointed chief commissioner.”
The lengthy report details 14 charges against Dattani, including comments he made more than a decade ago on social media and elsewhere under the name Mujahid Dattani.
The investigation firm found that his explanation for not including Mujahid Dattani’s name in the application and background check “lacked credibility”.
Instead, he provided the name Birju Mujahid Dattani, though he used only the name Mujahid Dattani in multiple panel discussions and on social media.
“We find, based on probabilities and the totality of the evidence, that Mr. Dattani intentionally omitted the name ‘Mujahid Dattani’ on the background check consent form (and elsewhere) and never disclosed during the application or interview process that he had used the name ‘Mujahid Dattani’ in the past,” the investigative report states.
After receiving the findings, Attorney General Arif Virani told Dattani in a letter on July 31 that the findings raised serious concerns about his level of candor in the appointment process.
Dattani, the first Muslim and person of color appointed to the position, was due to take office last Thursday but agreed to take a leave of absence while Virani considers what should be done.
“The findings speak for themselves,” Villani said in a statement on Monday.
“I accept Mr. Dattani’s decision to resign as chief commissioner. As I have said, maintaining the confidence of all Canadians in the Canadian Human Rights Commission remains my top priority.”
In a letter to the minister, Dattani denied that he had deliberately not revealed Mujahid’s name.
He said he adopted his middle name when he became a Muslim in early 2001, but the application form only asked for his first name.
He told the minister that a cursory search on Google of any name he provided would reveal all the information about Mujahid Dattani in a matter of seconds.
In a letter to the minister on August 1, he said even the slightest suggestion that he had given his first and middle names to hide something was “grossly overreaching and completely wrong”.
He said he first interviewed for the job in June 2022, well before the sharp rise in anti-Semitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and that it was unreasonable for him to emphasize his academic work on Israel “because of concerns that were unforeseeable at the time.”
“I remain a strong believer in the commission’s work, its mandate and its importance to our democracy,” Dattani said in a statement Monday.
Conservative deputy leader Melissa Landsman welcomed the news of his resignation but said it came too late.
“It’s easy to find Dattani’s past work with a simple Google search,” Lanzman said in an article on X.
“Either the Trudeau government’s political staff failed to do such a basic investigation, or they found this material and deemed the comments to be fine.”
She called for a “full, free and impartial investigation” into the original process of the appointment.
Villani said in a statement that the process of appointing a new chief commissioner would begin “as soon as possible.” His office said he would make no further comments on Monday.
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