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Results: 16 - 30 of 120
View Lindsay Mathyssen Profile
NDP (ON)
In getting rid of a lot of the barriers that people of colour, Muslim people, indigenous people and Black people face, but mainly when we talk about new immigrants and the removal of barriers in terms of the requirements within a specific profession, both of you would see that within your individual professions. Perhaps you could talk about the impact that has on the community as well.
Faakhra Choudhry
View Faakhra Choudhry Profile
Faakhra Choudhry
2021-06-22 11:44
Thank you for the question.
It's really important to remove those barriers. I was thinking while Nafisah was talking and I agree with all the points that she brought up. It is important to increase the diversity in the workplace. It is a symbol and gives power to all the diverse groups, just in Canada in general, when we start seeing more diverse workplaces, more diverse schools, more diverse [Technical difficulty—Editor]. It is really important that the people hired are not just viewed as diversity hires, because often they can receive backlash for that from their management, from their co-workers, from various other groups. They might be feeling that as well.
Removing those barriers is very important so that they're able to receive the education, receive the same quality training, receive the same opportunities. Then when they go to those workplaces, they feel confident in their ability to execute whatever their job requirement is, and it's not about, “This one person is Black, and this other person is Muslim. They were hired, but they might not have the qualifications.” Every single person who is in the workplace must have confidence as well, not just the person who is going in.
It's amazing that the workplaces are getting more diverse. Of course there are some that are still plainly one type of ethnic group or [Technical difficulty—Editor] the first person who is entering that workplace. It is really important to have those conversations. Many times that person might not want to be the person who is answering all the questions, representing the whole faith or the whole race, or whatever the situation might be.
When they have that confidence, then removing those barriers is very important, as was mentioned.
Thank you.
View Alice Wong Profile
CPC (BC)
I'm sorry. Yes.
I think it's important to note that education plays a very important role. You can see that, even with young kids. Some of my own relatives, both boys and girls, come home and say, “They call me bananas” or “They tell me to go back to China.” Actually, they were born here.
I'd just like any of the witnesses today to comment more on the importance of really having that education done. What can the communities do, for example, on the true meaning of different religions? Definitely the international media hasn't helped at all because they only tell horror stories and yes, unfortunately, there are lots of [Technical difficulty—Editor] in the world, but then we were educated by the international media to actually, unfortunately, build our own biases.
Would any of you like to comment more on the education part and on how your community can actually get involved in the classrooms or schools so that they truly understand what Muslim means or how the religion itself is about peace and harmony?
I belong to a multi-faith group in Richmond, and we work so nicely together. We have kids reciting their own literature. It was a beautiful scene, and that whole Number Five Road in Richmond is called the “Highway to Heaven”. We have all religious groups with their temples and schools on the same street. We are very proud of that harmony, but that harmony needs to be built right from a very young age.
Please, any of you, feel free to comment on that.
Nafisah Chowdhury
View Nafisah Chowdhury Profile
Nafisah Chowdhury
2021-06-22 11:49
Sure, I'm happy to speak to the issue.
It's been a while since I've been back in the school system. Look, I went through the public school system, right from junior kindergarten through to high school. I grew up in Scarborough, east of Toronto. I guess it's part of Toronto, but on the east side. I don't know if the curriculum has really changed a lot since I went through the system.
What really stood out to me is that it wasn't really part of the curriculum at all. You don't learn about other people's religions, faith systems or cultural practices and those kinds of things. Maybe you pay some lip service here and there for a celebratory event, but in terms of an actual deep dive into what are people's belief systems and these tenets that Canadians live their lives by....
The only time I learned about it was when I was a high school student and I signed up for an elective class, which was [Technical difficulty—Editor], one of my favourite classes. I absolutely loved it. I loved learning about.... I obviously know my own faith tenets, but learning about others was so eye-opening. It was a learning experience that continues to pay dividends now in my career decades later. But it was an elective course. It was me and 25 other students who happened to be in the course. Nobody else was in it. I'm hopeful that from a curricular perspective that more attention will be paid to this for young folks who are coming up through the system so that they're learning these things from a younger age and it's not just 30 people out of a 2,000-person school who are getting this kind of education.
I think that is important. The multi-faith events happen and certainly those who participate I'm sure get a lot from it, but oftentimes you're preaching to the choir. I think that's also true of the world religions classes, for those of us who were interested in taking it, because we obviously had an interest in it and we wanted to learn. We wanted to not be ignorant, wholly ignorant, of these kinds of things.
How do you get to those folks who are not part of this choir? That's the challenge. From an interfaith perspective again, you can't force people into those kinds of programs.
I think, Ms. Wong, you spoke about how we get a lot of training by international media. That's just the reality of our society. If that's the case, the folks who are not in the choir, if that's how they're being educated, then we have to start thinking about how we can ensure that where they do get their education from reflects the education they need to be getting. If that's going to be the source, let's do what we can to ensure that source has the right messaging in it, or at least counter-narratives to the harmful messaging that it contains.
View Sonia Sidhu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all of the witnesses for joining us today.
My question is for Nafisah Chowdhury.
You said in your statement that hate and racism is a disease that we we need to stop. A recent study found that more than 6,000 right-wing extremist channels, pages and accounts on social media are linked to Canadians. I have spoken to members of our local Peel Islamic Cultural Centre, other Muslim community groups, many ethnic groups, and they have expressed concerns about these right-wing groups.
Can you tell us if you believe that the toxic online environment contributes to the recent hate incidents? What are your recommendations to combat that?
Nafisah Chowdhury
View Nafisah Chowdhury Profile
Nafisah Chowdhury
2021-06-22 11:52
The short answer is yes. I think that the online toxicity is a huge contributing factor to the rise in Islamophobia and the rise in racist conduct, quite frankly, beyond Islamophobia.
Again, it's just going back to these echo chambers where people are finding themselves in groups, online discussions or social media channels where the worst elements of their prejudices are being spoken to and being encouraged. Then they're being given a platform to come together, to organize and to attack, unfortunately, upon this hateful messaging. It really is unfortunate that these platforms exist, and it's a very difficult task that government has in terms of trying to regulate it. I understand that it's a difficult task. I understand the challenges that come with it, particularly when we're living in a free and democratic society where freedom of expression is something that, rightfully, we hold dear in our society. We need to toe that line between censorship and tackling things, again, that are actually resulting in death.
There's a harm principle here. As a society.... Decades ago when we first came up with our hate speech laws, these discussions happened. It was recognized and accepted that words can kill. I remember learning in my first-year constitutional law class about screaming “Fire!” in a crowded theatre and the impact that that has. You cause a stampede and people die just from one word. Words do have an impact. When people are finding these forums online that are unregulated and that allow them to, with the cloak of anonymity, proliferate these very, very harmful messages and recruit others into this hateful ideology that they're teaching, it's a problem. There are going to be impacts. There are going to be consequences. People will continue to die, unfortunately, unless we do something about it. We can't expect that, if we just turn a blind eye and pretend that it's not happening, things are going to be better. It won't. It won't get better.
Even though it's a difficult thing for the government to do—to have to regulate, to figure out how to regulate it—it's something that the government must do. I don't envy the task of government, and your task as legislators. You have a difficult road ahead, but it's a critical road that needs to be taken immediately. It can't be sort of put on the back burner.
As a society, as Canadians, we don't shy away from things just because they're hard. We have to do them. That means talking to the people who are experts in this field to come up with a way to have laws, regulations and policies in place that curb that harmful stuff that's going on in a way that still respects our liberties.
View Sonia Sidhu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
My next question is for the representative of Ahmadiyya community. We have an engaged and committed Ahmadiyya community here in Brampton. I commend their work across Canada in fighting hate. We have a vaccine clinic at Masjid Mubarak...raising funds for the community, and we are always grateful for their work.
However, Ms. Choudhry, another aspect of this study is focused on cyber-bullying, which is more frequently experienced by young Canadians. Are you aware of young members of your community being cyber-bullied for their religion?
Faakhra Choudhry
View Faakhra Choudhry Profile
Faakhra Choudhry
2021-06-22 11:56
Many times, with regard to cyber-bullying, those who are going through it keep it private. Many times, even parents.... It can be happening in the same household. Their child can be feeling so many types of emotions and going through so many breakdowns, and they have no idea because when you have a phone, a tablet or whatever you use, you can keep your life very, it seems, in categories: your online world, your impersonal world, your home life, your school life.
In my personal experience, I know that there are people who, when they post things, for example, on Twitter, will get a lot of backlash just because they might be Muslim or just because they might be Ahmadiyya Muslim—especially on Twitter. If you go on Facebook, if you go outside of just your friend group and you post on another forum, if you go on any other type of social media like Instagram, if you're posting on a public picture, there are many, many people who will reply back with hateful things. Oftentimes, it's the same people who are just going to the different social media accounts and going to different posts just to copy and paste their same hateful comments over and over again. They don't want to have a reasonable dialogue with you if you try to engage with them. All they want to do is spew their hate.
I've had that personal experience for sure, but I do believe that the extent of it is not understood by myself or even parents, teachers or whomever it may be because many times people just keep it inside or just accept it as a normal thing that happens online, which is one of the worst things. It shouldn't be accepted as normal.
View Christine Normandin Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Ms. Chowdhury, I'd like to come back to the comment you made in response to my last question. You talked about the preconceived notions that we may sometimes have unconsciously, that can resonate with others and that may be ignored or, worse, condoned.
I’d like your perspective [Technical difficulty—Editor]. The concept of “ordinary sexism” has been developed, which covers small, everyday gestures that go unnoticed but contribute in an insidious way to hatred in general. Our study is on violent crime and online hate. Would it also be appropriate to address what we might call “ordinary Islamophobia”, if such a thing exists?
Nafisah Chowdhury
View Nafisah Chowdhury Profile
Nafisah Chowdhury
2021-06-22 11:59
Yes. Absolutely. I think we call it the unconscious bias or microaggression that folks deal with on a day-to-day basis. As women we've all experienced it. I'm sure everyone in this group discussion has experienced what it feels like, as women, to have to deal with these microaggressions. When we're having these kinds of discussions and we're talking about intersectionality, a woman from a marginalized group or racialized community has to deal with the same sorts of microaggressions that may impact them as a woman. Compound that with having to deal with the fact that, on top of that, they are a visible Muslim. If they are a Black Muslim woman, it's one step even worse—they're Black, Muslim and female.
Yes, there absolutely are day-to-day things that we women have to put up with to begin with, and all of the other difficulties or the microaggressions that come with it are layered on. If the government already has a strategy to deal with these things or to look at these things and come up with ways to overcome them, then I would absolutely encourage that. There are other categories, like microaggressions, that come from being a visible Muslim. It's not just women. Muslim men also face it. As diverse communities, we also have to be careful about.... Faakhra has talked about being from the Ahmadiyya community. She's a minority within a minority. That further compounds the issues.
Certainly, there are challenges that we face by being Muslim. I can only speak for myself, but as part of my identity, I feel that more as a Muslim person, as a visible Muslim person, than as a woman. If I had to rank which one I feel the impacts of more, it would be the fact that I have this cloth on my head, which sort of screams to the world what my religious beliefs are, and some of the fallout from that.
I don't know if that answers your question.
View Lindsay Mathyssen Profile
NDP (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I think that is key, that intersectionality, and understanding it and applying it to the legislation, ideally, that we bring forward. Certainly, legislation on online hate is well overdue and much required.
This is for both of you. I had put forward what was long asked for by the Muslim community, the national action summit on Islamophobia, which hopefully will occur this summer. I'm asking you to maybe each put forward a couple of recommendations that you would like to see come from that summit, and then the actions taken by the government to fulfill them.
Faakhra Choudhry
View Faakhra Choudhry Profile
Faakhra Choudhry
2021-06-22 12:02
Thank you for the question.
I'm so glad to hear there is a summit happening in the summer on this topic, because it's so important.
Some of the recommendations I made in my introductory remarks as well, so I can just repeat them quickly.
For me and for my community, monitoring online hate and online hate groups, hate speech, social media and having restrictions on things like this is really important to discuss at the summit. We have gone through those throughout our talk, so I'm sure everyone here is aware of that.
As well, it's really important that in education—we've talked about this as well—we talk about the curriculum, how teachers, professors, are trained, that they be trained properly, and that the curriculum incorporate diverse voices, which doesn't just mean having a math textbook and having a diverse name or having a diverse picture. That is not really diversity in the curriculum. It's having diversity in the curriculum in a proper way, like Nafisah mentioned before.
When I was attending school, kindergarten to grade 12, and university as well in Alberta, there were not many diverse topics. It shouldn't be up to the teachers to sometimes bring in a topic, or sometimes talk about current events, because oftentimes maybe the teachers are also not fully aware of all of the diverse groups of students that are around them and all the diverse groups that are in Canada. They also bring their prejudices and biases. Oftentimes it can feel as though your teacher is misrepresenting your group. When you're a child, when you're a student, you do not feel great at all when your teacher, whom you look up to, who is in charge of 30-plus students in the class, is maybe spewing hate about Muslim groups or Black communities or indigenous groups, or whatever the situation may be.
Teacher training definitely needs to happen, as well as professor training, curriculum changes, and looking at online hate. Thank you.
Nafisah Chowdhury
View Nafisah Chowdhury Profile
Nafisah Chowdhury
2021-06-22 12:04
Thank you so much.
Thank you to all the attendees today for the opportunity to speak.
Ms. Mathyssen, thank you for being a proponent of this national summit. I really appreciate it.
I echo what Faakhra said. Regulating online hate is really critical. I really do see that as being a very important piece that the government needs to move on, because only the government, really, is empowered and able to address this in a way that can make a difference, that needs to make a difference. That would be number one.
Number two, I know there has been some discussion about the appointment of a special envoy. I like that suggestion, provided that it's resourced, because we don't want just the envoy who is sitting there in a symbolic way so that we can say, “Okay, we have an envoy.” It would be nice to have someone who is dedicated to addressing this topic and to helping the government address this topic, who is properly resourced to be able to provide the feedback and be the guidance that the government can use on this topic. There are other community groups who will have other suggestions, and I'm sure they will have very good suggestions.
Very briefly, those are my comments.
View Marilyn Gladu Profile
CPC (ON)
Welcome, everybody, to meeting number 43 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
I call the meeting to order. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
Today we are beginning our study on eliminating hate crimes and violence against women and marginalized groups.
Witnesses, when you're ready to speak, you can click on your microphone icon to activate your mike, and address your comments through the chair. If you want to change your interpretation, if you look at the bottom of your screen, you will see that you can choose English, French or floor. When you're speaking, please speak slowly and clearly for our interpreters. When you're not speaking, your mike should be on mute.
I want to welcome all of our witnesses.
We have with us today Amira Elghawaby, human rights advocate. From Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada, we have Saadi Mahdi, regional vice-president, Asif Khan, national director, public relations; and Safwan Choudhry, director, media relations. From the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, we have Nuzhat Jafri, executive director.
Each of our witnesses will have five minutes to make their remarks, which will be followed by a round of questions.
We're going to begin with Amira for five minutes.
Amira Elghawaby
View Amira Elghawaby Profile
Amira Elghawaby
2021-06-17 11:03
Thank you, Madam Chair, for convening today's meeting.
Good morning, respected parliamentarians and staff. Thank you so much for inviting me to present today at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
I am here in my personal capacity as a human rights advocate who “wears many hijabs”, as I like to say. I'm a founding board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, an organization that monitors hate in Canada, as well as a board member with the Silk Road Institute, an organization that fosters cross-cultural and interfaith understanding.
I'm also part of Canada's labour movement, specifically the Canadian Labour Congress, where we actually released a groundbreaking report in 2019 titled “Islamophobia at Work”. It's actually there that I will begin my remarks, by discussing the ways in which Muslim women and girls are especially vulnerable to hate crimes by virtue of their status as Muslim women.
It is the combination and interaction of gender, racialization and religion that make Muslim women vulnerable to bias-motivated violence and intimidation. Many Muslim women in Canada and around the world choose to wear head coverings like what I'm wearing today, my hijab, or the niqab or burka, for various reasons. We know that over the years the hijab and niqab have been, and sadly, continue to be at times, vigorously debated and reported on by Canadian media. They are frequently politicized quite negatively. In fact, currently, Bill 21 in Quebec prevents women from wearing a hijab if they choose to work in various professions, including teaching, the law and policing.
As noted in the CLC's report on Islamophobia, the interaction of gender, religion, race and culture is especially acute for Muslim women who cover. Their visibility puts them at higher risk and makes them much more vulnerable to gender-based Islamophobia. They are immediately identified as targets for perpetrators motivated by hatred of Muslims and gender-based violence.
Of course, we don't know the exact reason or the evidence found by police in the most recent horrific attack in London against the Afzaal family, but we do know it was motivated by hate toward Muslims, and it is highly likely that their religious clothing was the reason they were most tragically targeted. Our thoughts and hearts are with those families and those they have left behind, including little Fayez.
A 2018 qualitative study by University of Toronto researcher Sidrah Ahmad, titled “Invisible Violence Against Hypervisible Women”, shows a very high rate of unreported gender-based violence against Muslim women in the GTA. That qualitative report documents the everyday Islamophobic experiences and impacts on Muslim women. The Muslim women in the study reported being spat at, yelled at, sworn at and experiencing physical as well as sexual assaults. Of the 40 Islamophobic incidents documented in the study, only three were reported to the police.
At this point, if I may, I will actually share my own personal experiences with the committee. Several incidents throughout my lifetime of wearing the hijab in Canada have really brought home to me how fraught it can sometimes be to wear visible Muslim clothing. In my own neighbourhood here in Ottawa, in Orleans, I too was almost hit by a truck that was deliberately and very dangerously swerving toward me while the driver was yelling obscenities at me. I have repeatedly been harassed and yelled at. While I maintain that the vast majority of Canadians are loving people who really promote dignity for all, these currents of hatred unfortunately do run through our society. These currents are, of course, the focus of my speech today, and I hope, some of the remedies you'll be looking at.
As Statistics Canada noted in its 2018 release on police-reported hate crime, for all types of hate crimes, nearly a third, 32%, of victims reported to police between 2010 and 2018 were female. Violent incidents targeting Muslim and indigenous populations were more likely than other types of hate crimes to involve female victims. Of all victims of violent crimes targeting the Muslim population that were reported to police, 45% were women or girls, as was the case for 45% of victims of hate crimes against indigenous populations.
Statistics Canada noted that the relatively high proportion of female victims of hate crimes targeting Muslim and indigenous populations could be related to specific factors, meaning the practice of wearing head coverings makes religious identity more visible for Muslim women than for Muslim men.
What we've also seen, unfortunately, is visibly Muslim politicians, athletes and celebrities who have been targets of intense hate and vitriol, being threatened daily with violence, rape or murder. Many of them are forced to leave their careers for their safety. We have, sadly, many examples in the current Parliament. As many may know, MP Iqra Khalid received horrific threats when she tabled M-103 and we know that MP Salma Zahid, who wears the head scarf, has also faced some harassment as well. Of course, I can't speak to what she's gone through but I know that it is not easy to represent constituents while also wearing religious clothing.
Hate crime statistics are hugely unreported, especially in the Muslim community as there is a lot of fear of being blamed and shamed. Of course, there is distrust of law enforcement or the feeling that there's unfair over-surveillance and detention anyhow within our Muslim communities. In fact, according to Statistics Canada, two-thirds of hate crimes are unreported.
Furthermore, we also realize that there are serious problems with prosecuting hate crimes. This is according to the fact that police solved just 28% of hate crime incidents in 2017, as shown by a Stats Canada analysis. By comparison, among all Criminal Code violations, excluding traffic violations, 40% were solved by police in that same year. Even when the hurdle of reporting to police is cleared by victims of hate crimes, the chances of success are 12% lower than with other types of offences.
Online hate is another area in which we know there is spillover into real life. Online hate does disproportionately impact racialized people, including women and visibly Muslim women, where the agenda of online trolls and haters is to silence or harm women and to control who has a voice. This is an important point to note, especially for those who argue that limiting online content is a freedom of expression. There are limits to free expression, including hate speech, especially when violence and hate is planned or incited.
Many committee members today may be surprised to learn that a report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in the U.K. identified more than 6,600 online pages, accounts or groups in Canada that were spreading white supremacist or misogynistic views. On a per capita basis, Canada was shown to be one of the most active countries in the world when it comes to spreading toxic views.
With the work at the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, we have advanced recommendations to government on how best to address online hate, which does remain a very serious problem. We know, for instance, that deplatforming works—
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