Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage

Comité permanent du patrimoine canadien

For immediate release

Ottawa, February 1, 2018 -

Today, the Hon. Hedy Fry, Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, tabled the Committee’s report entitled Taking action against systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia.

“Motion M-103, passed by the House of Commons, was referred to the Heritage Committee to study how the government could develop a whole of government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including islamophobia,” said Ms. Fry. “The six Liberals, three Conservatives and one member of the NDP worked together to identify and hear witnesses who could bring their perspective and experience on the issues before us.”

The Report makes 30 recommendations including that the Government take a strong leadership role to actively condemn systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia. Other recommendations called for updating the Canadian Action Plan Against Racism and broadening it to include religious discrimination; and establishing a uniform pan-Canadian guidelines and standards for the collection and handling of hate crime data and hate incident data. It also recommends that January 29th be designated as a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia, and other forms of religious discrimination.

The Committee held 14 meetings from September 18th to November 8th, heard from 77 witnesses and received 34 written briefs. The Committee heard from national organizations, groups representing racial and religious communities from across the country, government officials, academics and experts on the issues raised in the Motion.

The Report tabled today represents the majority view of the Committee; it also includes a dissenting report from the Conservative members of the Committee and a supplementary report by New Democrats.

Witness testimony and a link to the report can be found on the Parliament of Canada website at http://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/CHPC/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=9445027