Angry in the Great White North

As you might recall, I wrote about some of the opinions of Edmonton-Mills Wood-Beaumont Liberal Party candidate Farhan Chak. Chak wrote about how Palestinian violence is purely defensive in the face of the evil Israeli army, how Stephen Harper is a racist trying to destabilize Poland, and how there are no Algerian Islamic terrorists but that instead the slaughter of villagers in the 1990s was orchestrated by the French intelligence agencies.

Kevin Libin at the National Post has taken up the story, and we learn some new things about Farhan Chak in a story running on today's front page.

First, he's a much nicer guy now:

Say you want to be a politician. One problem: A few years out of grad school, you have left behind a trail of unsavoury opinions in the form of theses, articles and letters to the editor. You have accused the Israeli government of "murdering children and raping women." You've promoted conspiracy theories about Islamist terrorist attacks, suggesting they were orchestrated by Western governments to discredit Muslims. And more. What do you do?

That is the challenge facing Farhan Mujahid Chak, the federal Liberals' candidate in Edmonton. Three weeks after securing the nomination in the Edmonton- Mill Woods-Beaumont riding on March 31, some of Mr. Chak's writings surfaced on the Web site of Toronto-area blogger Steve Janke.

Today, the 33-year-old Mr. Chak says that while he finds the way his words have been presented on the Internet both "sad" and "outrageous," he insists "having chosen to enter the political arena, I was entirely prepared for engaging with the media." And as the news of Mr. Chak's words spreads, those preparations will likely be put to the test.

"As time goes on, you develop your views," explains Mr. Chak about his opinions. For instance, while he referred in a 2000 online article to then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon as a "butcher," he admits he wouldn't use that term any more -- because it "makes people guarded."

"Rather than blaming, I believe at this point, blaming drives people away. We have to bring the sides together."

As for Poland, well, Conservatives are racists:

Mr. Chak admits he overstated things. "The Conservative government's aim is not, intentionally, to destabilize Poland," he says. Asked about his charge the Tories' have a philosophy of "racial superiority," he says, "Believe it or not, the Conservatives I've met in Edmonton are very racist."

I wonder if Conservatives from the Calgary area, like, say, Stephen Harper, are as racist as the Conservatives from Edmonton.

How does a nominee win with this sort of baggage? Didn't anyone know about this stuff? It turns out they did, but there was no point in bringing it up. Why? Because Chak had the backing of Stephane Dion's people:

Sital Nanuan, who lost the nomination to Mr. Chak, says he was aware of his opponent's past writings from Internet searches but chose not to raise them during the campaign. "It could have backfired," Mr. Nanuan says.

Mr. Chak had strong backing from the Mill Woods Muslim community, he explains, and was popular because he was Edmonton campaign manager for Stephane Dion's Liberal leadership bid. "You think they'll listen to me? Because he says, 'I have been working with Dion,' so the whole committee, they wanted to help him out."

But words are words, right? People say things, and then take them back. Maybe we need to give people a chance to retract their words and move on.

I mean, it's not like Farhan Chak fired a gun at someone:

And there are questions around a 1993 shooting incident at a local club in which an Edmonton man named Farhan Mujahid Chak, then 19-- which would make him the same age as the Liberal candidate -- was charged with use of a firearm during commission of an offence and possession of an illegal weapon. (The candidate did not respond to requests for clarification on the charges.)

Right then.

Update: The charges included firing an prohibited shotgun into the doorway in a crowded nightclub. Detail here.

Here is the full text of the Kevin Libin story as it appears in the print edition of the National Post (update, it's also online):

Hazards of saying too much at earlier time
Alberta Liberal candidate's writings come back to haunt him

By Kevin Libin
National Post

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Say you want to be a politician. One problem: A few years out of grad school, you have left behind a trail of unsavoury opinions in the form of theses, articles and letters to the editor. You have accused the Israeli government of "murdering children and raping women." You've promoted conspiracy theories about Islamist terrorist attacks, suggesting they were orchestrated by Western governments to discredit Muslims. And more.

What do you do?

That is the challenge facing Farhan Mujahid Chak, the federal Liberals' candidate in Edmonton. Three weeks after securing the nomination in the Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont riding on March 31, some of Mr. Chak's writings surfaced on the Web site of Toronto-area blogger Steve Janke.

Today, the 33-year-old Mr. Chak says that while he finds the way his words have been presented on the Internet both "sad" and "outrageous," he insists "having chosen to enter the political arena, I was entirely prepared for engaging with the media." And as the news of Mr. Chak's words spreads, those preparations will likely be put to the test.

"As time goes on, you develop your views," explains Mr. Chak about his opinions. For instance, while he referred in a 2000 online article to then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon as a "butcher," he admits he wouldn't use that term any more - because it "makes people guarded."

"...Rather than blaming, I believe at this point, blaming drives people away. We have to bring the sides together."

Or, take a 2000 letter Mr. Chak wrote to the Edmonton Journal, in which he said Israel's policy in the occupied territories is one of "terrorism, massacres and savagery," the "pillage, the rape and the enslavement of an entire populace."

Today, Mr. Chak clarifies: "I believe in a two-state solution ... I offer my hand in friendship to all the communities."

Does he still consider terrorist attacks against Israel as "erratic act[s] of frustration," as he once wrote? "Taking life is never acceptable," he says. "At the same time, you look at it and say, 'Am I in a position to morally judge them [the suicide bombers]? Am I in a position to even talk about them?' In some ways, yes, we are. In some ways, no, we're not."

Sital Nanuan, who lost the nomination to Mr. Chak, says he was aware of his opponent's past writings from Internet searches but chose not to raise them during the campaign. "It could have backfired," Mr. Nanuan says.

Mr. Chak had strong backing from the Mill Woods Muslim community, he explains, and was popular because he was Edmonton campaign manager for Stephane Dion's Liberal leadership bid. "You think they'll listen to me? Because he says, 'I have been working with Dion,' so the whole committee, they wanted to help him out."

Last year, before Mr. Chak joined Mr. Dion's team, an article he wrote in a local Polish publication accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of pursuing an agenda of "exclusiveness, racial superiority, injustice and arrogance" and "trying to destabilize Poland" by cutting international aid to that country.

Mr. Chak admits he overstated things. "The Conservative government's aim is not, intentionally, to destabilize Poland," he says. Asked about his charge the Tories' have a philosophy of "racial superiority," he says "believe it or not, the Conservatives I've met in Edmonton are very racist."

Efforts to reach Liberal riding officials to discuss Mr. Chak's view were unsuccessful. Being a prolific writer, Mr. Chak faces a significant volume of material he may have to answer for with voters, if not party brass. In 1999 he wrote a letter to the Journal accusing India of "grotesque human rights violations in Kashmir." The following year, he portrayed India's democracy as a fraud: "India is not free ... particularly for those who exist outside the narrow confines of the high caste Brahmin who pummel others into stupor," he wrote to the paper. Mr. Nanuan predicts that the remarks will anger many in Mill Woods' large Indo-Canadian community. "We don't have any place in our party for his kinds of attitudes," Mr. Nanuan says. "And not even in the country,"

In a 2002 article in a U.S. Islamic journal, Mr. Chak seemingly endorses a conspiracy theory that the Algerian massacres and a series of terrorist attacks within France in the mid-1990s were likely not committed by Algerian Islamists, as is widely believed, but by "unseen hands" - a plot masterminded by "such foreign co-conspirators as the French government."

And there are questions around a 1993 shooting incident at a local club in which an Edmonton man named Farhan Mujahid Chak, then 19 - which would make him the same age as the Liberal candidate - was charged with use of a firearm during commission of an offence and possession of an illegal weapon. (After cutting short an interview, the candidate did not respond to requests for clarification on the charges.)

Mr. Chak says he realizes he must be more careful with his words. There is a difference, he says, between "how you write something and how other people might take it." Nevertheless, he insists, "for me, most importantly, I want to bring people together. People might think I'm naïve for that."

A lot of words come to mind to describe Farhan Chak, but something as gentle and harmless as naïve is not one of them.

Note: The version of the article I received directly from the National Post says the interview was "cut short" when the question of the firearms charges was raised. The print edition and the online version of the story simply say that the candidate did not respond for requests for clarification.

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