The Liberal party announced on Sunday the nomination of Patricia Lattanzio as the candidate in Montreal’s Saint-Leonard—Saint-Michel riding for the upcoming federal election.
The decision came shortly after former Liberal candidate Hassan Guillet was ousted over controversial social media posts.
WATCH: Former Liberal candidate refutes anti-Semitic accusations
The party withdrew Guillet’s candidacy on Aug. 30 after B’nai Brith, a Jewish advocacy group, brought old statements that Guillet made on social media to the party’s attention. The Liberal party said Guillet’s posts did not adhere to their values.
READ MORE: Former Montreal Liberal candidate Hassan Guillet ‘completely shocked’ by accusations
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According to B’nai Brith, the since-deleted social media posts are “disturbing, anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli.”
One of the posts the group was alarmed by from 2017 said in Arabic, “After nine months in a prison in occupied Palestine, we congratulate Sheikh Salah for his release and his resistance. We ask God to speed up the release of all the prisoners as well as of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and all of Palestine.”
READ MORE: Ex-candidate says Liberals knew about controversial posts before ouster
On Wednesday, Guillet told reporters that his posts were public, and the party should have known about them when they vetted him in 2017.
The former Imam said that if the Liberals refused reinstate him, he wouldn’t rule out running for another party or as an Independent this October.
Patricia Lattanzio is a Canadian politician, lawyer and city councillor in the Montreal borough of St-Leonard.
— With files from Global News’ Alessia Simona Maratta, Phil Carpenter and The Canadian Press
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