Lame-duck Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed Liberal MP Omar Alghabra to act as Canada’s special envoy to Syria. 

The Syrian-Canadian Alghabra — born in Saudi — announced he wouldn’t be running in the next election back in 2023.

In a statement, Trudeau said Alghabra’s deep ties to Syria will help him “promote inclusive governance and ensure the protection of human rights.” 

The development comes just two months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, after militants from the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group ousted al-Assad’s regime on December 8 last year. 

Since then, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa effectively became the new country’s new leader — and proceeded to tell the international community that he’ll hold an election, but not for three to five years. 

Justin Trudeau in unprecedented fashion for a Western head of state, spoke directly with Al-Sharaa earlier this week, congratulating him on his Islamic conquest. 

Sharaa’s HTS remains a designated terrorist group in Canada, something the Prime Minister and his new Syria envoy have yet to acknowledge. 

Trudeau, when speaking to Sharaa, celebrated the fact that Canada has welcomed over 100,000 refugees from Syria since 2015. 

Violence against minorities

The Prime Minister’s appointment of the Sunni-Muslim Alghabra will likely please the Syrian Jihadi administration wanting to shut down concerns over sectarian violence against Syria’s minority communities like Alawites and Christians. 

The Alawites are a small ethno-religious group native to Syria, who in recent decades have embraced a progressive-secular lifestyle contrary to that of Syria’s Sunni majority that considered them infidels. 

Former President Assad was himself an Alawite, however lived and promoted a very secular lifestyle marrying outside of his own sect, while cracking down on Islamist groups like the Muslim brotherhood during his reign.