A man who briefly headed the Canadian Human Rights Commissioner has filed defamation lawsuits against the deputy Conservative leader, media personality Ezra Levant and a leading Jewish group for statements he claims “characterized him as an antisemitic, terrorist supporter.”
Birju Dattani claims in the lawsuits that during the summer of 2024 he became the subject of an online and media campaign. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman and Levant have been named as defendants in a set of three similar lawsuits.
The court clash has its beginning in Dattani’s appointment as chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in June 2024.
Canadian Jewish groups such as Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies and B’Nai Brith Canada raised questions about the appointment based on his social media posts about Israel and related activities he participated in while using a different name during his time at graduate school nearly a decade ago.
The federal Justice Department engaged a Toronto law firm to review “the comments and (whether Dattani) engaged in conduct as alleged and reported in the media.”
The report that followed stated: “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.”
Dattani’s lawsuits claim online attacks against him by the three defendants continued. On August 12, four days after he was to begin the role, Dattani announced his resignation.
The allegations in the lawsuits have yet to be proven in court.
He has asked the court to award general damages ($450,000 against the CIJA, $650,000 against Levant, $500,000 against Lantsman), aggravated damages (separate awards of $150,000 against the CIJA, Levant and Lantsman) and to make declarations that all of the defendants have defamed him.
In a statement late Wednesday, the CJIA stood by its earlier position regarding Dattani.
Richard Marceau, CIJA’s vice-president of external affairs and general counsel, said: “We received the statement of claim and are reviewing. What we said is sourced and factual.”
Dattani, and his lawyer, Alexi Wood of St. Lawrence Barristers PC, plan to hold a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday morning to speak to the lawsuits.
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