Statement — Meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada on the ongoing threat to belonging and inclusion of Canadian Muslims

By Amira Elghawaby

November 6, 2024

This week, I met with the Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, to highlight how Islamophobia, and its intersections with anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, continues to harm our social fabric, undermines pluralism and poses a direct threat to our democracy.

As we have been witnessing, international conflicts have direct impacts here at home. Canadian Muslims of Palestinian and Lebanese descent continue to suffer devastating impacts of the ongoing violence, war, and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Lebanon. This remains top of mind for many in our communities who continue to urge the Canadian government to do more to save innocent lives and defend international humanitarian law.

While the federal government has taken important steps towards addressing racism and hate in Canada, including proposed online harms legislation, as well as through the recently launched Canada Action Plan on Combatting Hate, including needed and welcomed enhancements to the Canada Community Security Program, and Canada’s new Anti-Racism Strategy, there are widespread concerns that Islamophobia and other forms of hate continue to increase.

The devaluation and dehumanization of Palestinian and Lebanese lives have a direct impact in Canada, leaving many Canadian Muslims and others feeling a pronounced sense of exclusion, a sense of second-class citizenship, and vulnerability for themselves and for their children. Palestinian and Muslim identities continue to be frequently and unfairly associated with terrorism in public discourse, both online and offline. This is impacting Canadian Muslims and many others in their schools, workplaces, and in their wider communities where there have been documented reports of harassment, reprisals, hate crimes, and other harmful repercussions.

A feature of a growing climate of division is the deliberate efforts to silence voices peacefully calling for the application of international humanitarian law, deeply shaking confidence in our civil liberties and in governmental and institutional commitments towards fairness, equity, and inclusion.

Through a series of roundtables across Canada, members of Parliament and my Office heard clearly that exclusion and erasure that are being reported by our communities, including among youth, are in part due to a lack of federal acknowledgement of anti-Palestinian racism. I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment on adopting a definition of anti-Palestinian racism to describe the bias and discrimination far too many Canadian Palestinians are experiencing.

Furthermore, I outlined how I have been working with my team to fulfill the mandate, including providing training for federal employees on Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, as well as providing policy advice on key files. These have included guidance on Employment Equity, Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate, Online Harms legislation, special immigration measures to support Gazans and Sudanese fleeing war, and extensive public consultation and engagement to raise awareness on Islamophobia.

I reiterated my commitment to continuing to understand the preoccupations, fears, and aspirations of Muslim communities in Canada. This is to inform my ongoing engagement with the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, the federal government and with Canadians from coast to coast to coast. I remain hopeful that we can overcome the significant challenges we continue to face at a time of unimaginable despair, division, and anxiety and assure Canadian Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians that they, and their children, fully belong in Canada.