Rasem Abdel Majid has been IRFAN-Canada’s general manager for many years. His role in the organization is mentioned in many documents (p. 14/19) sent by the Canada Revenue Agency to IRFAN-Canada over the years.
On April 29, 2014, the Minister of Public Safety, Steven Blaney, announced that the Government of Canada has listed the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy-Canada (IRFAN-Canada) as a terrorist entity.
Analyst David Harris was invited to comment on this new development by Michael Coren on Sun News.
Harris reminded the viewers that this designation of IRFAN as a terrorist entity was the conclusion of a very long process that started more than nine years ago.
In November 2004, then Opposition MP Stockwell Day and other people held a press conference at Parliament to make public a study by an intelligence centre in Israel that discovered that money collected by IRFAN was ending up in Hamas’ coffers.
In January 2006, Canadian media announced that Stockwell Day was being sued by IRFAN-Canada for having mentioned the connection between this organization and Hamas.
Hamas itself had been designated as a terrorist entity by the Canadian Government in 2002. Over the years, Hamas has made clear that its ambitions are not limited to the Middle East. Its leaders have frequently advocated the Islamic conquest of the West (2008 – 2011 – 2012). On July 16, 2013, Hamas even threatened to launch terrorist attacks in countries where Israel embassies are located. Canada is among the potential targets, of course.
On April 7, 2009, IRFAN-Canada organized a fundraising event in a facility belonging to the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) in Montreal. The guest speaker was Ekrima Sabri. This trustee of a coalition raising money for Hamas actively promotes suicide operations. In 2000, he stated: “The younger the martyr, the greater and the more I respect him.”
In April 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked IRFAN’s charity status, after having suspended it the year before. The CRA audit came to the conclusion that, for the period 2005-2009 alone, IRFAN transferred $14.6 million to Hamas.
Before Justin Trudeau in 2012, Conservative and NDP politicians endorsed an Islamist convention sponsored by IRFAN-Canada
During his interview with David Harris, host Michael Coren reminded his viewers that, in December 2012, Justin Trudeau accepted to address the Islamist conference Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) in spite of the fact that it was sponsored by IRFAN-Canada.
David Harris added that other dignitaries had showed a lack of due diligence before Trudeau, and endorsed the Islamist convention in previous years as well:
In fairness, of course, other dignitaries had been duped. They had appeared at this conference, now and then over the years, including a former, if you can imagine this, Commissioner of the RCMP. And the difficulty is that, when this does happen, when there should be a failure of due diligence, you know, to a near certainly, that, in years to come, when the crunch does come for these organizations, they will pull out as a trump card the list of all these individuals and organizations that have previously engaged with them. And, sure enough, that is exactly what happened.
[…] And it’s gotta be said that, I might add, the year before [in December 2011], the Conservative Party and the NDP sent greetings to the same organization.
Teaser of the 2012 RIS Convention featuring Conservative MP John Carmichael who had attended the Islamist conference the year before.
Senator Salma Ataullahjan (left behind the speaker) and MP John Carmichael (to her right) at the 2011 Islamist RIS convention
Further reading
Point de Bascule: IRFAN-Canada
Point de Bascule: Reviving the Islamic Spirit Convention
