The Executive Director of the Canadian Arab Federation, Mohamed Boudjenane has downplayed the “F--- Canada Day” comment by his former Vice President as nothing more than “a stupid faux pas.”

In talking to the Toronto Star, the CAF leader suggested use of the F word to describe Canada by his former VP was no big deal as it is a sentiment shared by many Quebecers.

Posing a rhetorical question, he asked the Toronto Star’s John Goddard, “You know how many Quebecers say ‘F--- Canada’ everyday?”

The Executive Director of the Canadian Arab Federation told  Mary Vallis of the National Post, the comments  by his former VP were no more than “a stupid mistake,” but did not condemn the man or his words.

One would have hoped the Canadian Arab Federation would have unequivocally denounced their former vice president Omar Shaban, but instead, all that CAF did was to distance themselves from the man and label his hateful tirade against Canada “a stupid faux pas” adding it was a sentiment shared by many Quebecers. As if that made the remark right.

As far as the man at the centre of the storm, former CAF VP Omar Shaban defended his use of the slur “F--- Canada Day.” He told Joe Warmington of the Toronto SUN, "When the country I was born in shames me with its colonial mindset, I refuse to celebrate it, and will not apologize for refusing to do so."

When asked by the Toronto SUN why he won’t leave the country he hates, and why doesn't he head back to Lebanon where he grew up,  the former VP of CAF said, "I still have to finish my school ... I am still studying."

Which triggered this comment from Joe Warmington:

“Oh sure, of course! So much for "F... Canada," eh -- at least until his top-notch education is completed. Although born here but raised in Lebanon, this Canadian calls Canada a "genocidal state" that he's "ashamed of," but says he'll hang around long enough to get a grubby university degree in international relations from Vancouver's Kwantlen Polytechnic University in B.C. that'll be accepted the world over.”