Mayoral Candidate’s Social Media Posts Deemed “Extremely Disconcerting”

In a growing controversy in Montreal’s municipal politics, Sud-Ouest borough mayoral candidate Thierry Daraize faces mounting criticism over a series of social media posts targeting Muslims and making controversial statements about the Gaza conflict.

The Ensemble Montréal candidate initially drew attention for a now-deleted February Facebook post where he wrote, “I’ve already booked my 2032 vacation to Gaza, at an all-inclusive,” referring to Donald Trump’s proposal to turn the Gaza Strip into a resort. When questioned about the post earlier this week, Daraize claimed he was “being sarcastic” and merely expressing outrage at Trump’s plan, saying he regretted not making his sarcasm clearer. His explanation and apology were accepted by party leader Soraya Martinez Ferrada.

However, additional social media posts obtained by The Rover reveal a pattern of concerning commentary about Muslims. In these posts, Daraize referred to Muslims as “bearded radicals,” criticized efforts by Canadian universities to hire more Muslim professors, and liked content that mockingly referred to the left-wing French political party La France Insoumise as “La France Islamiste.”

In a 2024 post on Threads, Daraize described Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia, as “dangerous.” Elghawaby was appointed to her position in 2023 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who formerly employed Martinez Ferrada when she served as a Liberal Member of Parliament.

Daraize also shared debunked Israeli propaganda in October 2024, claiming to show the wife of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar carrying a “$32,000 Birkin purse” while living in luxury in Gaza tunnels—content that was initially shared by the Israeli military but later proven false.

Members of two mosques in Sud-Ouest have condemned Daraize’s posts as Islamophobic and called for Ensemble Montréal to reconsider his candidacy.

“I’m disappointed. I grew up in the Sud-Ouest, it’s a great place, but our mosque has been smashed up before and many of us have been attacked for being visibly Muslim,” said Fatima Ahmad, whose father volunteers at the Khadija mosque in Point-Saint-Charles. “Islamophobia is a very real concern for us. The fact that he’s so comfortable sharing these posts publicly is scary for the Muslim community.”

Ahmad described being personally attacked three times while wearing her niqab in public, with the most recent incident occurring in February 2020 outside the Charlevoix metro station, where a man pulled her niqab and punched her before being arrested and charged.

Another mosque member, who requested anonymity, called Daraize’s posts “extremely disconcerting.”

The National Council for Canadian Muslims (NCCM) has reached out to community leaders in the Sud-Ouest borough to discuss the issue after receiving concerned messages from community members.

“We’ve had members of the community reach out to us and say they’re extremely concerned,” said Stephen Brown, a Montrealer and CEO of NCCM. “This is part of a much larger problem of Islamophobia that we’ve seen since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.”

Brown noted a disturbing trend: “In the past two years, we’ve seen more than a tenfold increase in people contacting our legal clinic to ask for our help. Especially women who are visibly Muslim that have been attacked in one way or another.”

Montreal is home to more than 230,000 Muslims, representing approximately 12 percent of the city’s population, according to Statistics Canada.

Daraize, who has lived in the Sud-Ouest for ten years, emigrated from France to Montreal over three decades ago. He established himself as a chef at prestigious establishments including the Lutetia Paris, the Ritz Carlton, and Chateau Mont Tremblant, and is also known as an acclaimed author and media personality.

The controversy extends beyond Daraize to other Ensemble Montréal candidates. Former TV journalist Leslie Roberts, running in Ville-Marie, characterized Muslim street prayers in Montreal as a form of “intimidation” in a published column. Meanwhile, Notre-Dame-de-Grace candidate Sonny Moroz shared a video in 2012 titled “The Most succinct powerful indictment of Islam in the modern world,” commenting that it was “the most sense I have ever heard in Arabic.”

The Rover has reached out to Ensemble Montréal for comment on these developments.