Olive Tree Foundation announces grant to NCCM and Ottawa Muslim Association

Olive Tree Foundation announces grant to NCCM and Ottawa Muslim Association

(TORONTO – December 14, 2018): The Olive Tree Foundation has announced that a grant has been awarded to the Ottawa Muslim Association for the project, Know Your Rights, Know Your Responsibilities: A Pocket Guide for Canadian Muslims. The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) will develop the project in partnership with the Ottawa Muslim Association.

The Know Your Rights Video Series project is a visualization of parts of the NCCM’s forthcoming publication, Know Your Rights, Know Your Responsibilities: A Pocket Guide for Canadian Muslims. The guide was created to empower Canadian Muslims by addressing gaps in knowledge about their rights and responsibilities related to employment, travel, social and commercial services, healthcare, law enforcement, national security, and citizenship.

“We are very excited to begin this project with the support of the Olive Tree Foundation and the Ottawa Muslim Association,” says Nadia Hasan, Deputy Director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM).  “These videos will greatly enrich NCCM’s Know Your Rights program and allow for critical information about human and civil rights in Canada to be more broadly disseminated.”

The proposed video series is part of NCCM’s broader Know Your Rights dissemination strategy to provide Canadian Muslims with multiple access points to, what is for many, inaccessible language of legal rights.

The Video Series will include dramatizations of what was found to be common scenarios faced by Canadian Muslims, and how to assert relevant individual rights and freedoms in those scenarios. Prior to production, the content of the video will be tested on focus groups.

“The Olive Tree Foundation is very pleased to fund the Know Your Rights Video Series,” says Naeem Siddiqi, Vice-President of the Olive Tree Foundation, in announcing the grant. “With the rise of Islamophobia and hate incidents, Canadian Muslims, as well as other marginalized and targeted communities, will benefit greatly from this project.”

The Olive Tree Foundation is a philanthropic foundation that promotes community development through the collection of endowed funds and charitable contributions to fund services for the long-term benefit of the community.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) is an independent, non-partisan and non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the human rights and civil liberties of Canadian Muslims (and by extension of all Canadians), promoting their public interests, building mutual understanding and challenging Islamophobia and other forms of xenophobia.

The Ottawa Muslim Association (OMA) is a grassroots charitable Muslim organization governed by the guidance provided in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah (teachings) of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to serve Muslims in the greater Ottawa Community.