Anthony Housefather
- Born
- January 25, 1970 — Montreal, Quebec
- Education
- B.C.L. and LL.B. from McGill University, and an MBA from Concordia University's John Molson School of Business
- Career
- Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and General Counsel, at Dialogic Corporation
- Political Experience
- Municipal councillor in the Town of Hampstead (1994-2001), municipal councillor in the borough of Côte Saint-Luc-Hampstead-Montreal West (2001), Mayor of the City of Côte Saint-Luc (2005-2015), Member of Parliament for Mount Royal (2015-present)
- Notable
- Nationally ranked athlete as a student, seven medals at the 2013 Maccabiah Games, five medals at the 2017 Maccabiah Games. Appointed as advisor on Canadian Jewish community and antisemitism in July 2024.
Based on publicly available information — may contain inaccuracies
Business & Financial Interests
Before entering federal politics, Anthony Housefather had a career in both law and business. He practiced law at a Montreal-based firm and later served as the Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and General Counsel for Dialogic Corporation, a technology company. His public service career began at the municipal level, where he served as a city councillor and later as the mayor of Côte Saint-Luc, a city in his current federal riding.
Key Relationships & Connections
Anthony Housefather is the successor to former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler in the Mount Royal riding, and the two have been described as political allies. Housefather is a prominent voice on issues concerning the Jewish community in Canada and serves as the chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group. He is known to work with various community organizations on issues of antisemitism and human rights.
Public Controversies
Anthony Housefather has been at the center of public attention for publicly disagreeing with his own Liberal government on several key issues. In March 2024, he reportedly threatened to leave the Liberal caucus over the government's initial willingness to support a modified NDP motion related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he argued was anti-Israel. The government ultimately changed its position after significant pressure from Housefather and other MPs. He has also been a vocal and consistent critic of Quebec's secularism law (Bill 21) and its French-language law (Bill 96), arguing they infringe on minority rights. His outspokenness on these files has sometimes placed him at odds with his party's official stance and generated significant media coverage.
Where Anthony falls on key policy spectrums
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People & Society
How We're Governed
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How does Anthony Housefather's voting record line up with your values?
Madam Speaker, this weekend the U.K. Green Party adopted a motion declaring itself anti-Zionist, calling Zionism “racism” and calling for the dismantling of the state of Israel. Zionism is simply the belief that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. One can be a Zionist and criticize Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Israeli government policies. Many
Cape Breton—Canso—Antigonish Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out that I will be sharing my speaking time with the member for. I often say what an honour it is to rise in the House to debate a motion. I actually cannot say that today, because this is one of the most nonsensical motions I have ever seen before the House of Commons. Normally, when we propose a motion, we have a solution; we have
Mr. Speaker, on whether the projects list would include ending homelessness, I am not quite sure that is what the project list works for. However, ending homelessness is a very important issue. Making sure that people have a roof over their head is incredibly important. Whatever government programs deal with that and continue to deal with that certainly are priorities for all of us in this House.
Mr. Speaker, affordability is very important. Seniors' issues are also very important. We want all seniors to be able to live with dignity. That is why, in 2015, our government reversed the Conservatives' decision to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67. Discussions will be held on this private member's bill. I recognize that there are real challenges facing seniors aged 75 and over. In
Mr. Speaker, it must be very sad to be sitting in the opposition and have nothing as a solution to propose for affordability and to create a motion that basically does not propose anything at all. Affordability is a very important issue. Affordability is a problem throughout western democracies. Affordability needs to be tackled. This government is tackling it, and the opposition has zero
Mr. Speaker, that is a wonderful question. Prime Minister To me, one of the things that is most important about this government is making Canada work and working with the provinces. We will see provincial premiers saluting the government and the. They say what a pleasure it is to work together to create projects that will have a national scale and that will allow us to bring things to market
Thank you very much. Mr. Farrer, congratulations. Thank you for the work that you and your members do. I'm going to start with you guys, Mr. Bourassa. I'm going to come back to one of the issues you raised about the integrated teams. One of the questions I had originally was the question of not having prosecutorial powers for the new agency, similar to the U.K., where you would always have
One of the things that I also raised in the last meeting, which I see you have in your brief, is the issue of the sharing of information between jurisdictions. Can you talk to me about how you would see us try to integrate that into the bill?
The U.K. model, as I understand it, is a more unitary state. There's not the multijurisdictional aspect. Do you not feel that the U.K. model is a model we should be looking towards?
One of the things that you're also suggesting, with respect to the relationship with the RCMP, is setting some type of floor through a shared agreement with the RCMP. Could you elaborate on that, please?
Yes, because I haven't yet.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that this is a bid to be collaborative. It's unfortunate that the motion was not shared, or at least not with the Liberal members of the committee, prior to the meeting. Otherwise, we could have talked beforehand and tried to work out what should be there. Basically, the proposal we have is that we set aside three meetings instead of six. Six seems like an awful
Thank you. You talked about—
Oh, I'm sorry.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak today. The first thing I want to say is that I will be proposing an amendment that I am about to send to the clerk. I will read the amendment. I move: That the motion be amended as follows: (1) That the words “a minimum of” be deleted; (2) That the words “six meetings” be changed to “three meetings”; and (3) That all