 Print
Canada hosts National Summit on Islamophobia
7-22-2021
On June 6th Nathaniel Veltman plowed a pickup truck into a family of five, killing four of them and seriously injuring the other in a deliberate attack that targeted the victims because they were Muslims.
More Muslims have been killed in targeted hate-attacks in Canada than any other G-7 country in the past 5 years because of Islamophobia.
The rise in the number of attacks on Muslims in Canada demanded a more serious approach to tackle the rising number of hate crimes.
Hundreds of Muslim organizations in Canada demanded the federal government to act and
MPs voted unanimously in favour of a motion calling for a national summit on Islamophobia in June.
Subsequently the federal govt. announced the National Summit on Islamophobia to take place on July 22, 2021.
Omar Alghabra Minister of Transport in his remarks in the summit said, “Islamophobia is real hurtful and can be deadly.”
Diversity Minister Bardish Chagger in her opening statement said, “it is an unfortunate reality that horrific Terror attacks like those in Quebec City and London are still happening we know this because too often Muslims everywhere in Canada face intolerance and hatred as a daily fact of life”, “ We are here today to listen to concrete effective actions to fight hate and systemic islamophobia and identify benchmarks to measure progress for Muslim communities and their willingness to share openly and frankly to tell exactly what your community's needs and how we can get there together.”
During his remarks, Trudeau said Canadians must fight for a Canada "where we celebrate diversity, where we stand together."
The PM urged, “Right now we do have to fight for the kind of Canada we all want to see in place, where we celebrate diversity where we stand together or we look out for each other and our country must work hard to live up to.”
He further said, “Earlier this week I sat down with the family in Hamilton who were threatened because of their faith. No one should face hatred in their own neighbourhood.
We talked about why things like this happen and how to prevent it. This includes fighting misinformation with education, taking real action to protect Canadians and Stamp Out hate wherever it rears its ugly head, we created Canada's first ever anti-racism strategy and passed a motion in the House of Commons to condemn Islamophobia because there must never be any doubt that hate is wrong and has no place in our country.
To keep people safe we are investing in infrastructure to protect everything from mosques to community centres, to keep violence out of our communities we are cracking down on online extremism, Banning far-right hate groups.
Wherever division threatens to take hold in our country we must remain strong and United.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge the global conflicts that have been very troubling for Canadians.
Let us be clear there is no place in Canada for Islamophobia ever. On world stage our government will always stand out for peace and democracy human rights freedom of expression and freedom of belief, this includes through the protection of many young who take to the streets to Advocate and protest calling in their elected officials to do more, we hear you, we will continue to work with you on these issues close to your heart and close to our hearts.
We organized the national Summit on Islamophobia which brings together the federal government and Muslim communities across the country to chart a course at Forward against racism and Islamophobia.
The security agencies and institutions should support people, as many of you have pointed out, part of the path forward must be a public service that is inclusive rather than just diverse and the voices of all those who lived with experiences and expertise on islamophobia must be at the centre of our work today.
This is not your burden to carry alone, I'm here to listen to you on what our next step should be to continue building a country where everyone is welcome safe and respected.
As a society this is everyone's responsibility. Over the past years we've seen increasing examples hatred and division online and in public discourse and over the past month so we seen an increase in anti-black racism and anti-semitism.
Canadians need to continue to commit themselves to stepping up, continue to grow to be part of the solution.
The politics of division cannot take root if we refuse to be divided.”
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday that while the summit was a good idea, the Liberals have been slow to act against the rise in Islamophobia and other racist ideologies.
"There are a number of solutions that we have known about for years, and, sadly, Mr. Trudeau has not responded, has not taken action," he said.
Mustafa Farooq, chief executive officer of the NCCM, said the federal government currently doesn’t have any specific resources or strategy specifically aiming to fight Islamophobia.
They have suggested policy recommendations after hosting consultation sessions over the past few weeks with mosques, community organizations and collectives from British Columbia to the Atlantic provinces, representing a diverse intersection of Muslims in Canada.
The report can be viewed here.
Policy-Recommendations_NCCM.pdf (kinstacdn.com)
Footnotes:
|