Adil Charkaoui to face summary assault charge on Friday
Jaela Bernstien | CBC News | Posted: March 15, 2016 10:30 PM | Last Updated: March 15, 2016
Outspoken anti-Islamophobia advocate faces charge for incident involving CEGEP security guard
An outspoken Quebec anti-Islamophobia advocate, Adil Charkaoui, will face a minor charge in court this Friday for an incident he says is yet another example of how he's been unfairly targeted.
Charkaoui confirmed to CBC News that his lawyer will represent him on Friday in municipal court for a summary conviction offence of assault.
What happened is worthy of a banana republic, - Adil Charkaoui
But he said the whole incident is a lie.
"What happened is worthy of a banana republic," he wrote in French via text message.
"It's a shame to see what's happening here in Quebec."
The case stems from an incident that occurred in February at the Collège de Maisonneuve, where Charkaoui rents several classrooms for Arabic and Qu'ran studies as part of a school he runs.
According to the CEGEP's version of events, a security guard who was making his rounds of the school's gyms was "intimidated and shoved" by Adil Charkaoui.
The CEGEP said the guard was watching a group of people play a game of soccer when the incident took place.
Charkaoui told CBC News a different story.
He said he was refereeing his son's soccer game at the school when the guard came over to see what was happening.
He said they asked the guard to move because they were afraid he could get hurt by accident, but the guard refused to move and, in fact, tried to provoke them.
Charkaoui said he never hurt the guard.
Charges follow media reports
He told CBC News that even though police were called to the scene, they left without making any arrests.
It was only a few days later, after the story made its way into headlines, that police asked to meet him again.
His lawyer arranged for Charkaoui to meet police and sign a form promising to appear in court.
The Collège de Maisonneuve said for now it will not be commenting further on the incident.
Tense history between CEGEP and Charkaoui
The incident is the latest in a series of conflicts between the CEGEP and Charkaoui.
In fact, the alleged assault happened almost exactly one year after the school tried to cancel a contract to rent Charkaoui classroom space, after reports that one of his students was suspected of leaving Canada to join militants in Syria.
The school later allowed Charkaoui to return.
Charkaoui was arrested in 2003 on a security certificate under suspicion of terrorism-related activities. He won his challenge of the certificate several years later.