MONTREAL — The Montreal Alouettes were not immediately responding to complaints about content on a player’s Twitter account that included retweets of material that denies the Holocaust and compares the Islamic State to Israel’s Mossad.
Khalilf Mitchell, a defensive tackle who entered a three-year contract with the CFL club in February, had not removed the content as of May 14. That’s the day B’nai Brith Canada issued a press release denouncing Mitchell’s postings under the heading “Football All-Star Promotes Holocaust Denial.”
The Jewish group is particularly aggrieved by Mitchell’s retweeting on May 6 of a YouTube video, a “documentary” called The Greatest Lie Ever Told – The Holocaust.
Also Mitchell’s recent tweets included a cartoon drawing an equivalency between the Islamic State and Mossad and another graphic indicating ISIS stands for “Israel’s Secret Intelligence Service.”
B’nai Brith spokesperson Sam Eskenasi said on May 14 that the organization had received no response to the letters it sent a few days earlier to Alouettes’ general manager Jim Popp or to Canadian Football League (CFL) commissioner Jeffrey Orridge.
Neither the Alouettes’ general management nor communications director Charles Rooke had responded to The CJN’s request for comment by May 14. Likewise, Orridge has remained silent.
Eskenasi said that Mitchell’s Twitter feed has been replete with “bizarre and weird” postings.
There have been “outlandish conspiracy theories [and] comparison of police officers to the Ku Klux Klan,” he said.
“As an all-star and role model for Canadian youth, Mr. Mitchell should not be sending out divisive and hateful tweets under the banner of the Montreal Alouettes organization,” said B’nai Brith chief executive officer Michael Mostyn. “Mr. Mitchell has a history of posting wacky and offensive tweets.”
In 2012, when Mitchell was playing for the B.C. Lions, the CFL fined Mitchell an undisclosed amount for using a derogatory term for Chinese people in a tweet.
Mitchell has over 2,000 followers on Twitter. The 30-year-old Virginia Beach, Va., native has also played for the Toronto Argonauts.
Mitchell told the Montreal Gazette in February when he signed with the Alouettes, in reference to the 2012 tweet and other misbehaviour: “I’m not who I was, I’m who I am. I’m a man now. When I was done doing those things [I was] a child. I was coming up at 23, 24, 25, having no male influence. Growing up, living life and being raised around women … making a couple of mistakes based on my illegitimate knowledge of how society claims political correctness. Based on where I’m from, I think I’ve done pretty well.”
B’nai Brith faults the Alouettes organization for not being more vigilant about Mitchell’s social media activity, given his past.
“While understanding that we cannot judge the stream of consciousness of individuals who share offbeat Internet postings,” said Mostyn, “these repugnant tweets are shameful not just to Mr. Mitchell, but the entire Alouettes organization which he represents by displaying its logo and proudly donning its jersey on his Twitter account.”