Federal Transportation Secretary awards another contract to controversial YouTuber

Last January, Omar Al-Ghubra announced that he was Shocked and disappointed By learning about the existence of a video clip with anti-gay rhetoric that was broadcast on Fadi Younes’ channel on YouTube, and more than 250 thousand people subscribed to it. Then the minister confirmed that he had rescinded the contract he had with Mr. Younes.

However, just six months later, in July, Omar Al-Ghubra’s office re-appointed the man who runs a digital marketing consultancy in the Toronto area by Omar Al-Ghubra’s office, the minister asserts.

I had an in-depth conversation with Mr. Yunus and decided to re-engage him on a part-time contractHe said in a written statement.

The minister’s office did not disclose the amount paid to the blogger for this contract.

Mr. Al-Ghabra explains that Fadi Younes’s thinking has evolved since the video was posted in 2017 and that he has also attended awareness trainings on the rights of the LGBTQ community.

He assured me that he understood the harm words could cause and the need to fight ignorance and intolerance, including homophobia.

Before he became a minister on January 12, Ontario’s Representative for the Mississauga Center awarded Fadi Younes Consulting Company four contracts totaling $13,000, between July 2020 and January 2021, for video editing and graphic design services.

To this day, Omar Al-Ghabra asserts that he was not aware of the existence of the video that Fadi Younes published in 2017 at that time.

Contrition

In a statement sent to Radio Canada, the blogger said he regretted it Repeating offensive and offensive remarks in his message. Fadi Younes explains that he has been aware of the reality of LGBT people since the publication of his message and Promise to do better In the future.

The Trudeau government presents itself as an advocate for LGBT rights. During the campaign, Liberals in their first 100 days promised to reintroduce a bill to ban the practice of conversion therapy and finalize a federal action plan for the LGBTQ community.

The Minister of Transport asserts that it is important for him to fight ignorance and homophobia. Throughout my political career, I have always and unequivocally supported LGBT rights, he says. We must not accept the promotion of ignorant stereotypes and insulting insults.