Former Liberal transport minister Omar Alghabra is defending his inclusion on—and the mandate of—the government’s new anti-hate advisory council after renewed criticism over its perceived lack of urgency from opposition critics and American officials.
“If people have criticisms of the council, its function, or even [my membership], that’s fine, but to use slander and falsehoods … it’s beneath the office that they possess and the seriousness of the issue,” Alghabra said in an interview with The Hill Times last week, calling Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s (Battle River–Crowfoot, Alta.) allegation that he lobbied on behalf of a terrorist group “absurd … political gamesmanship.”
