Football (illustration)
Football (illustration)Thinkstock

A football player in Canada who was fined by the Canadian Football League (CFL) and his team over anti-Semitic tweets has apologized for his action, The Canadian Press (CP) reports.

Khalif Mitchell, a defensive lineman for the Montreal Alouettes, was fined an undisclosed amount last week for “tweets violating the league’s social media policy” after he tweeted a link to a 2015 YouTube video titled “The greatest lie ever told – The Holocaust,” which called the murder of 6 million Jews an “alleged” act.

On Friday, he apologized for the tweets in a joint statement by the CFL Players’ Association and B’nai Brith Canada, according to CP.

“I wholeheartedly apologize to all those who I know I let down by posting those videos, especially those who look up to me as a professional athlete,” Mitchell said. “I fell into a trap by watching that video and I hope others can learn from my very public mistake.

“This is a learning moment for me,” he added.

Mitchell agreed to work with B’nai Brith, a Jewish human rights organization, to “educate myself about this and other human rights matters,” according to CP.

The report added that Mitchell had talks with B’nai Brith chief executive officer Michael Mostyn as well as with the CFL, the CFLPA and the Alouettes after news broke of his Twitter posts.

“I have come to see that he is a very genuine individual who truly did not comprehend the deceptive nature of this vile video,” said Mostyn.

CFLPA president Scott Flory added, “We hope that people will accept his apology and we support him on his journey to become a positive force.”