An archive of Ahsanul Hafiz's decade-old Facebook posts sent to The Provincial Times sheds new light on the online history of the man who now carries the Ontario Liberal banner in Scarborough Southwest.
The material, consisting of screenshots from 2011 to 2013, shows Hafiz, then a relatively recent immigrant from Bangladesh who had settled in London, Ontario, engaging in heated commentary on Bangladeshi politics.
Several posts express strong support for the death penalty in cases tied to contentious war crimes tribunals. In one February 2013 post, Hafiz reacted to the sentencing of Abdul Quader Mollah to 23 years in prison,
“Kader mollah has to be in prison for 23 yrs.what the fuck! 23 yrs bd money will spend for his living its better hang tht rajakar for death,” Hafiz wrote, arguing taxpayer money would "be better spent elsewhere" and referred to the convicted man as a "rajakar," a term associated with collaborators during Bangladesh's 1971 independence war.
Days later, when Delowar Hossain Sayeedi was sentenced to death, Hafiz celebrated.
One post read “yeeee delowar baba faisa geche,” later followed by “machine cholbe but jhule geche lol baba delowar,” which translates roughly to “the machine will run, but hanged is baba Delowar lol.”
At the time, international human rights organizations including Amnesty International raised serious concerns about the fairness of the trials.
The archive also contains photographs of Hafiz at a shooting range, posing with handguns and wearing yellow-tinted glasses. In Canada's political context, where gun control remains a sensitive issue, such images are likely to draw attention.
Other posts reflect the intense polarization of Bangladeshi diaspora politics.
Hafiz shared cartoons and commentary that labelled political opponents of his father's party with Pakistani flags, a pointed accusation in Bangladeshi discourse.
He cheered specific Awami League candidates in the heavily disputed 2018 election—some of whom later faced legal troubles—and posted approvingly about a rival “lying in the jail hospital.” The archive further includes images from his father's funeral, which was attended by a former ally and now fugitive ex-minister of the Sheikh Hasina government.
One 2011 post used the word “retarded” (misspelled) dismissively. Another linked to a shock website promising a video titled “Brother rapes his sister.”
Hafiz has previously described some of these old posts as reflecting emotions running high around Bangladesh's war crimes trials and said they do not represent who he is today, and has noted he only visited a gun range once.
Supporters of Hafiz argue the posts date from more than a decade ago, when he was still building his life in Canada after arriving as an international student in 2002 and working his way up in the fast food business.
Yet the content lands awkwardly in Scarborough Southwest, a riding with a significant Bangladeshi-Canadian population. Residents of the community Hafiz seeks to represent have been sharply critical of the former Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina, which was ousted amid mass protests in 2024.
Questions about some of the posts were first raised during the nomination period, but the Liberal Party has so far stood by Hafiz and treated them as historical rather than disqualifying, despite all of which violating the OLP code of conduct. Hafiz himself has emphasized his focus on local issues such as affordability and housing.
Still, the newly examined archive adds detail and specificity to earlier reporting. In a diverse Toronto riding where community sensitivities matter, the material provides both the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats with ready-made lines of attack. Door-knockers and flyers can now point to primary-source screenshots rather than second-hand summaries.
Whether voters in Scarborough Southwest will view the posts as youthful indiscretions from a time when Hafiz was deeply immersed in homeland politics, or as evidence of deeper character and judgment issues, will likely become clearer as the by-election campaign unfolds. For now, the archive ensures that Hafiz's past online record remains a live issue in Scarborough Southwest.
