Committee
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 1 - 15 of 48
View Marilyn Gladu Profile
CPC (ON)
I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 44 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
Today's meeting is in a hybrid format and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
Witnesses, when it's your turn to speak, I'll recognize you by name, and you can click on your microphone icon to activate your mike. Comments should be addressed through the chair, and interpretation in this video conference is available. If you look at the bottom of your screen, you can pick English, French or the floor, which will give you whatever's being spoken. When you're speaking, speak slowly and clearly for the translators. When you're not speaking, your mike should be on mute.
You will see that, when your time is drawing to a close, I will gently remind you with this little card [Technical difficulty—Editor]. Obviously, we wish we had more time, but in the time that we have, we try to make sure that we give everybody the chance to speak, and then we'll move along.
Let me just welcome our witnesses today. As an individual, we have Nafisah Chowdhury, who is a lawyer, and from Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, Calgary, we have Faakhra Choudhry and a host of supportive friends as well. We're glad to have you here today participating in our study on eliminating hate crimes and violence against women in marginalized groups.
We'll begin with Nafisah Chowdhury for five minutes.
View Jag Sahota Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here. We appreciate your presentations. I'm sorry to hear some of the personal stories that basically tell us that this is not the Canada that we want to be living in. We want improvements. We want to change how we look at each other so that visible differences—or other differences, for that matter—shouldn't be the basis of how we treat each other.
Ms. Choudhry, you spoke about your personal experience and how the teaching of equality needs to start at a young age. I want to tell you a bit about my experience with the Ahmadiyya community. My father ran a taxi company. We basically had people from all over the world who moved to Canada and drove taxis with him. To me, as a person, I don't look at people and their differences as the basis for how I treat them. In fact, it's the exact opposite. I've grown up with a lot of Muslim friends. Some of my best friends were Muslim friends. The way I see them is just as human beings—that's it. I'm hoping that eventually our younger generation doesn't focus on the physical differences or the differences in religious beliefs—all of that.
I've grown up like that. I see the name “Naeem Chaudhry” here, under “Witnesses”. I call him “Uncle Chaudhry”. I remember staying at my dad's best friend's house, staying there overnight, and his children being our best friends. I'm saddened to hear these stories when this happens in the Canada that I grew up in, where we weren't necessarily taught these differences, and I appreciate the fact that we need to start very young in targeting our younger generation to teach them to treat everyone equally.
My question is going to be on the hate crimes. Can you speak to the meaning of the term “hate crime”? You alluded to that in your presentation, Ms. Choudhry.
I guess we have two Ms. Choudhrys, so the question is for both of them, please.
Our focus in this study is on how we move forward so that what happened in London, Ontario, doesn't happen again. Can you briefly speak about the meaning of the term “hate crime”? Then we'll go to how our government and we parliamentarians can make things better or how we can address and support Muslim women.
View Salma Zahid Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thanks to Ms. Nafisah Chowdhury and Ms. Faakhra Choudhry. We'll have to use the first names to distinguish you before the committee. I've known Nafisah Chowdhury for a long time and have been at different events where I have heard her views on important issues.
Thank you for your important testimony today.
My first question is for Ms. Nafisah Chowdhury. You have previously stated in one of your interviews that legal problems require a multi-faceted approach. Similarly, you've said that it's important and very much needed to bring multiple perspectives to address issues like hate crimes and violence against women.
Can you please explain how to bring forward these multi-faceted approaches to address issues like hate crimes and violence against women? How can we challenge ourselves to look at these issues from multiple perspectives? What do you feel acts as a barrier to bringing the [Technical difficulty—Editor] be broken?
View Christine Normandin Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you very much.
I'd like to thank the witnesses, Nafisah Chowdhury and Faakhra Choudhry, for their testimony. I think that simply talking about it is already a step in the right direction. People need to be more alert when they see something unacceptable.
I'll draw a parallel with what I heard in a very good report yesterday on the CBC about elected officials and people being harassed online. What struck me was that we realized that people who commit these acts often don't have a criminal record. They're just ordinary people, and it takes us by surprise.
Do you feel that Islamophobic gestures come from the average person, or is there a typical profile of an attacker, harasser or hateful person?
View Christine Normandin Profile
BQ (QC)
View Lindsay Mathyssen Profile
NDP (ON)
I thought I had done that well before.
Within the workplace, of course, the federal government has an employment equity strategy and act, but there continue to be a lot of racism and accountability problems within that Employment Equity Act.
Can you maybe talk about strengthening that equity act? I know it's only at a federal level, but it would have lots of implications for provincial levels as well, by setting that bar or that standard.... What would be the benefits from that investment in under-represented groups and bringing more of them into that Employment Equity Act?
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.
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.
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?
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?
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?
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.
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.
View Lindsay Mathyssen Profile
NDP (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to my colleague Madam Wong. It's very kind.
Yes, my community, my hometown of London, has seen such incredible violence and incredible hurt and pain in the last few weeks, but I know that's been shared by every other community across Canada. I've heard from so many of my colleagues who said, “I went to a march. I went to a vigil.” People are reaching out to me, and I've heard from people across this country as well, women who are scared to cross the street. It's truly our responsibility now to try to find ways to address this adequately and quickly.
I put forward a motion last week in the House of Commons which was adopted unanimously. It calls for a national action summit on Islamophobia to be held this summer. I would like to hear from all of the witnesses, if I may, on some of the measures, some of the actual actions, they want to see from this summit, and give us recommendations on how to move forward with that.
View Salma Zahid Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thanks to all the witnesses, my good friends, people I have worked with for the last many years to build a more inclusive Canada.
Thank you, Madam Elghawaby, for all the work you have done to combat racism.
Thank you, Mr. Khan, for building bridges. I have been to your organization many times where you have made efforts to bring the communities together to break these walls of hatred. I really appreciate all your work.
Thank you, Ms. Jafri. We were together recently to launch the Scarborough chapter of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women. Thank you for all the work you are doing to make sure that no one in Canada feels scared or fearful.
Hate crimes have been on the rise in Canada, and the last few weeks have been very difficult for all Canadians, but particularly for the Muslim community. We saw the loss of four innocent lives to an act of terrorism motivated by hate: Islamophobia. It was very difficult to sit there and see those four coffins wrapped in the Canadian flag. In the days that followed, we saw a Somali woman wearing a hijab attacked, the Edmonton mosque vandalized with swastikas and two people arrested following an attempted break-in at the Islamic Institute of Toronto.
For all of us, It has not been easy.
Clearly, these incidents show that Islamophobia exists here in Canada. Acts of hate exist. What can the federal government do to better support Muslim communities and the communities that have been targeted by these acts of hate?
Maybe I can start with—
Results: 1 - 15 of 48 | Page: 1 of 4

1
2
3
4
>
>|
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data