Thrill seekers like me can only tolerate so much peace, order and good government. That’s why, every six months or so, I leave Canada to report from locations afflicted by violence and chaos.
In late February, I arrived in the eastern Mediterranean country of Lebanon for a two-month stint. Ottawa had already warned Canadian citizens to leave the country over concerns of neighbouring Israel’s escalating conflict with Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based militant group. The federal government recently issued another warning.
While in Lebanon, I interviewed Hezbollah fighters, Palestinian refugees and ordinary citizens who lost their life savings in 2019 when the country’s banking system collapsed.
Yet, one of my most interesting interviews was with a Lebanese-Canadian whom I met at a bar in central Beirut. His name is Marwan Tabarra, a former member of Parliament for Kitchener South—Hespeler, who served from 2015 to 2021.
In 2020, Tabarra was forced to resign from the Liberal Party caucus after he was charged with two counts of assault and one count of being unlawfully in a dwelling house. The charges — to which Tabarra pled guilty in 2021 — stemmed from an altercation with a man who was then seeing Tabarra’s former girlfriend.
Tabarra was sentenced to three years’ probation and 40 hours of community service. Four years later, at the age of 39, he is putting his life back together. He married in 2022 and is now trying to re-enter politics.
Only this time, he’s running for office in Lebanon.
A few months after meeting in Beirut, we met virtually to discuss his path to redemption and what it was like to serve in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s caucus.
FD: Tell me about your upbringing as a Lebanese-Canadian. How have you balanced those two identities?
MT: I was born during the Lebanese Civil War. I lived around two minutes from the Green Line, which separated East and West Beirut. I only have one memory of the war, which was a building burning down a block away from our house. We fled to the mountains after that, and then to Canada in 1988. I was only four or five years old at the time, so my Canadian identity is much more dominant than my Lebanese identity.
FD: Tell me why you’re now returning to Lebanon to run for office.
MT: Lebanon is at a critical juncture. It’s really hanging on by its last string, because of the economic and political crises here. I think the country needs some new ideas and new blood. And given that I used to work in the Canadian government, a G7 country, I can help reform the country with that experience.
FD: Lebanon has a confessional system (meaning a certain number of seats are apportioned for different ethnic sects). What sect would you be running under, and how does this system differ from Canada’s political system?
MT: I would be running as a Sunni, although I don’t really go by that anymore. I would run in Beirut … as one of the change candidates.
The major difference in Canada is that we have such a large bureaucracy and government. It’s kind of like an old clock, where there’s so many components and mechanisms working … In Lebanon, if ministers and their departments … wanted to make a change, it would be made very quickly.
[In Lebanon], you definitely have to work with extremely different views, some radical views as well.
FD: How does it feel to see your former Liberal colleagues now slumping in the polls? What advice would you give them to try to regain Canadians’ trust?
MT: I think the Liberals are not pushing forward with stressing their version of a better Canada. I think the Conservatives are doing a lot better on this messaging of what their version of Canada would look like.
I think the government has been distracted by crises in Ukraine and the Middle East, and their focus has shifted in all these different directions. But when you’re approaching an election, your focus should be on making the lives of people better.
FD: Tell me about your plan to run for office in Lebanon.
MT: The [Lebanese] diaspora is increasingly getting more involved with elections within Lebanon. For example, in the 2018 election, I think there were around 40,000 or 50,000 diasporans that voted. In the 2022 election, there were around 140,000-150,000. And there’s only room to expand that figure, as there are more than 10-million Lebanese diasporans around the world.
FD: It’s now been four years since you pled guilty to criminal charges. What did you learn from that experience?
MT: This was right in the middle of the pandemic, and there was a lot of uncertainty. I think everyone was facing this kind of uncertainty with their health, their job, and uncertainty around the world. This was no different within my household.
At the time I was separated from my partner, but we were still living together. And there was another individual that came into my household and, unfortunately, I reacted with a lot of emotion. I was using my heart at the time.
I just learned that when you’re overcome with emotion, you need to take a step back and think logically through it. Take your time with a decision.
FD: Did it cross your mind when this altercation was happening that this could jeopardize your career?
MT: You know, I’ve thought about that a lot. A lot. It’s just that, when it comes to your family, you’re very emotional about it. … I wasn’t thinking about my career at that time. I was thinking about what was valuable to me at home.
FD: Have you stayed in touch with your former colleagues in the Liberal Party? What are they telling you about a potential leadership change in the wake of the by-election loss in the Toronto-St. Paul’s riding?
MT: I haven’t spoken to anyone since the loss. But prior to that, I was speaking with an MP who said he wouldn’t be surprised if we went down to 75 seats. I think this loss is a real wake-up call, and if they can lose in downtown Toronto, every seat is in jeopardy.
FD: What is your perception of how the caucus now views the Prime Minister, and how has that changed over time?
MT: So I’ll jog back to 2016. I think most MPs have felt the Prime Minister’s Office has had more control than it should have. Sometimes in caucus we would share about some of the issues that were going on in our ridings. A lot of the time it was addressed, but sometimes it was ignored.
I think many MPs would agree that the Prime Minister’s Office and the staff working there had too much power. It was sort of assumed that the PMO knew best.
FD: How do you think the Liberal Party’s message has evolved since 2015?
MT: I think they’ve always had problems with messaging. Even when I was serving, we always were saying that our messaging wasn’t getting to constituents enough. … You should always be showing your constituents that you’re doing the work, displaying it over and over again on social media and other mediums.
And so the messaging now, I think the Liberals have moved a lot further to the left. And that has lost them some voters that are undecided and more centrist.
FD: As an Arab-Canadian, what do you think about the government’s foreign policy vis-a-vis Israel and Palestine? When you were a member of the Liberal caucus, did you have any conversations with the Prime Minister about this?
MT: I think [Canada] has a disappointing voting record at the UN [on matters related to Israel and Palestine]. … Canada’s foreign policy here has expired.
FD: What policy, can you be more specific?
MT: You hear over and over from [Global Affairs Canada] that we believe in a two-state solution and that Israel has the right to defend itself. But these are talking points that have simply expired.
They’re not addressing the real issues. Putting aside Gaza for the moment — where we need an immediate ceasefire — the ongoing settlement expansion has to stop. We need a real solution for the 750,000 Palestinians who were displaced and now living in neighbouring countries.
FD: What do you miss about being an MP, and what did you not enjoy about the job?
MT: I just miss the whole community aspect. [As an MP], you’re invited to every type of gathering, whether it’s a new business opening or a new project that all levels of government are working together on.
I loved just helping the community members with small little local files. You can change someone’s life by working on their file, whether it’s a tax file or an immigration file.
The one thing I hated was raising money.
FD: Anything else you’d like to add?
MT: There’s a lot of frustration right now because of inflation and the economy. And whoever forms the next government needs to ensure that we’re making everyone’s lives better.
We’re competing against other major economies and Canada needs to stay competitive. That’s the most important thing that the parties need to be focusing on.
