Collège de Rosemont severs ties with Adil Charkaoui group

The Collège de Rosemont in east-end Montreal says it will no longer rent space for kickboxing and karate courses to the Centre communautaire de l'est de Montréal, an Islamic centre run by Adil Charkaoui.

College director Stéphane Godbout said Thursday the college was unable to come to an agreement with the controversial imam that would allow him to continue running courses while respecting the college's code of conduct.

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Godbout said the college was concerned specifically by links on the centre's Facebook page to what it characterized as "violent, radical" material.

Charkaoui also rents space at Collège de Maisonneuve for his École des Compagnons, a school for Arabic and Qu'ran studies.

Charkoui responded to the latest decision Thursday, first via his Facebook page.

"The director of Collège de Rosemont is taking advantage of the arrest of a student from [Collège] de Maisonneuve (who is not even charged) to publicly air our failed discussions regarding the Compagnons karate and kickboxing courses in their school," he wrote.

Charkoui later elaborated in a news release.

"This cancellation is unfounded, defamatory and discriminatory," his statement said.

"Throughout its discussions with the heads of [Collège de] Rosemont, the Compagnons Karate and Kickboxing Club showed good faith, while the administration of  Collège de Rosemont has continued to invoke various excuses to cancel the contract."

Courses suspended

In February, both colleges suspended Charkaoui's space-rental contract over concerns about some of the links on his group's Facebook page.

A month later, Collège de Maisonneuve reached an agreement with Charkaoui's École des compagnons allowing courses to continue, as long as there were observers in the classroom to ensure that college's code of conduct was being respected.

Godbout said Collège de Rosemont tried to reach a similar agreement with Charkaoui but was unsuccessful.

He said Charkaoui's group agreed to respect the college's code of conduct, but only while it was using the college's facilities.

Godbout said that's not good enough.

"The links that were put on the internet that we had a problem with, that was done outside the college, but we wanted them to respect communication norms that are respectful and ethical," said Godbout.

No connection to arrests

Godbout said there was no connection between today's decision and the arrest yesterday of 18-year-old El Mahdi Jamali.

Jamali had previously supported Charkaoui on his personal Facebook page.

RCMP requested Wednesday that Jamali and another teenager, Sabrine Djermane, sign peace bonds because they had reason to believe they might commit a terrorism offence.

Both Jamali and Djermane are enrolled at Collège de Maisonneuve.​