Group representing Canadian Muslim donors pulls back from Liberal Party over stance on Gaza

Raffy Boudjikanian · CBC News

· Posted: Dec 08, 2023 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

A network representing influential Canadian Muslim donors to the Liberal Party of Canada has dropped out of the ranks of the party’s top donors, citing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s disinclination to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, CBC News has learned.

In a formal letter sent to party president Sachit Mehra on November 27, the group — which calls itself the Network 100-GTA, London, Ottawa, Montreal and says it has 400 members — said it has called on Trudeau repeatedly to request a ceasefire.

“The Leader does not appear to be interested in truly listening, nor interested in giving true value to international Law, nor truly caring about the children of Gaza. With broken hearts, we must depart the Laurier Club,” the group wrote. 

“The idea that this situation will all be forgotten in two years is an extremely risky and unwise strategy for the Party. The scale of the humanitarian loss is simply unprecedented.”

The donor group is made up mostly of Canadian Muslim professionals, such as lawyers and doctors. Formed in December 2014, the group helped Justin Trudeau to his first election victory in 2015.

The group says it has directed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Liberal Party annually since December 2014. One member of the group — whose donation records CBC News verified with Elections Canada — has contributed nearly $19,000 to the Liberals since the group’s foundation.

The Laurier Club is the upper tier of Liberal Party donors. The party’s website says that to be eligible for the club, members must donate at least $1,700 per year.

Trudeau’s harshest criticism of Israel since its war with Hamas began came on November 14. He urged the country to use “maximum restraint.”

“The world is witnessing this killing of women, of children, of babies. This has to stop,” he told a news conference at the time.

That earned him a rebuke on social media from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trudeau also has said repeatedly that Israel has a right to defend itself after the attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people on October 7.

Since then, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said Israel has killed more than 17,000 people with its military response. It has not broken that estimate down into civilians and combatants; it claims most of those killed have been under 18. Public health experts have told the Reuters news agency Hamas kept accurate population numbers prior to this conflict.

Network members have spoken to Trudeau, Telford

Some members of the Network 100 have spoken directly to Trudeau and his chief of staff Katie Telford.

Other network members took part in a virtual meeting with Mehra on December 5.

One long-time party organizer and prominent Canadian Muslim told CBC News he told Mehra during the meeting that “the Liberals should not think that our community is going to forgive and forget.”

The organizer spoke to CBC News on the condition they not be identified and said they had agreed not to publicize the contents of the closed-doors meeting.

The organizer described the conversation with Mehra as “very tough” and said it was difficult for members of the network because they consider him an “old friend.”

“We’re trying to plead with Sachit to recognize the train wreck that is before them,” the organizer said. 

The organizer said they would let Mehra take the donors’ message to the Prime Minister’s Office and would give Trudeau until January to respond.

The organizer, a self-described founding member of Network 100, said the group might have to consider an escalation if Trudeau does not start calling for a ceasefire.

Next steps might include telling specific Liberal MPs the group will throw its support to NDP or Green Party candidates in certain ridings, since those two parties have called for a ceasefire, the organizer said.

CBC News ran the organizer’s name through Elections Canada’s database. The organizer alone has contributed more than $20,000 to the Liberals since December 2014, when the group began its donor activities.

If every member of the group cuts the Liberals off, the party could find itself short at least $680,000 annually. The party raised $14.5 million last year, according to Elections Canada.

The organizer who spoke to CBC also said the group could still support individual Liberal MPs who have openly called for a ceasefire.

They also said the party could lose more than just money. The organizer said Muslim communities heavily backed Trudeau in 2015 and Network 100 encouraged people to canvas for the party door to door.

The organizer said a lot could change for Liberal candidates in key swing ridings in southern Ontario if 1,000 erstwhile campaign volunteers decide to stay home.

WATCH: Protests ramp up pressure on Trudeau to call for a ceasefire    

As the death toll in Gaza climbs, outcry in Canada is adding to the pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call for a ceasefire.

Another member of the Network 100, Mohamad Abokasem, told CBC News he has lost faith in Trudeau and a change in the prime minister’s position on a ceasefire now would be unlikely to mend the rift.

“We believed the promises that Justin Trudeau as a brand was marketing in 2014,” Abokasem said, citing Trudeau’s stated commitment to human rights and renewing Canada’s presence on the international stage.

“We’re not asking him to take sides. I don’t want him to support Palestinians or Jews. It’s not about that. It’s about us as people, it’s about the civilian casualties,” Abokasem said.

“We cannot sleep at night imagining [that], by the time you sleep and get up, there’s at least 50 Palestinians getting killed on the ground,” he said, adding that he and his family fled Gaza as refugees when he was a child.

Bad timing for the Liberals

The move by the Network 100 comes at a vulnerable moment for the Liberals, who have lost ground to the federal Conservatives in voting intention surveys for several months in a row. Most polls currently show the Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre would win an election if one were to be held right now.

Shachi Kurl, the president of the Angus Reid Institute, said the Liberals can’t afford to lose mass Muslim support in this context.

“It adds to the pressure. It adds to the continuum and particular mix of pressures,” she said.

“The Muslim diaspora in Canada tends to lean more left than right and tends to have a higher level of support for the Liberal Party than the Conservative Party. But where the X factor exists is in the potential for the NDP to pick up or take back some support from the Liberals on this issue electorally.

“The prime minister is probably not making anybody as happy as they would like to be.”

WATCH: Gould says government is open to talking about Israel-Hamas war 

House Leader and Liberal MP Karina Gould says her party is open to having tough discussions over the Israel-Hamas war. The party faces the loss of some influential Canadian Muslim donors over its position on Gaza and decision to not call for a full ceasefire.

Government House leader Karina Gould said the war is forcing the Liberals to have “hard conversations.”

“There’s a really awful situation happening in the Middle East and we are having those hard conversations, both internally but also with our donors and supporters,” she told reporters outside the House of Commons on Friday. “And that’s something that we’re going to continue to do.”

In a statement, the Liberal Party did not answer specific questions about its relationship with Canadian Muslims.

“Canadians choose to donate to political parties for a variety of reasons, including to support a specific cause or policy position,” wrote the party’s director of communications Parker Lund.

“The Liberal Party of Canada is powered by individual Canadians chipping in what they can to help build a better future for everyone — and we work very hard to engage our supporters on their priorities to keep moving forward.”