Elghawaby was in London, Ontario, where members of the Afzaal family were killed, on the first stop of a tour of communities
A few weeks after apologizing for comments made in an opinion piece in 2019, Canada’s representative against Islamophobia started an official tour of communities with a stop in London, Ont., where a Muslim family was killed in June 2021 in an attack that police say was motivated by hate.
“Muslim communities across Canada, but especially Muslim communities in London, asked for a special office to fight Islamophobia,” Amira Elghawaby said in an interview withLondon Morning‘s Rebecca Zandbergen on Monday after her weekend stop.
“I had to go to London, I knew that.”
In the middle of a controversy, Elghawaby started her job as the country’s first representative to fight Islamophobia at the end of January.
Elghawaby and Bernie Farber, the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, wrote an opinion piece together in 2019 about Quebec’s controversial Bill 21, which says that public employees in the province can’t wear religious symbols like hijabs.
“Unfortunately, the majority of Quebecers seem to be influenced not by the rule of law but by anti-Muslim feelings,” Elghawaby and Farber wrote.
Elghawaby eventually apologized for her comments after Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party, and a number of other politicians, who said she was against Quebec, called for her to be fired.
Some Muslim people in London, Ontario, are still “scared.
She met with about 200 people from London’s Muslim community over the weekend and told themLondon MorningThat she heard a variety of messages, including ones about the support Muslims felt after the attack on the Afzaals and the progress London is making—it just hired a Muslim liaison officer—but also about the fears that still exist in the community after the attack on the Afzaals.
Yumna Afzaal, 15, her parents Madiha Salman, 44, and Salman Afzaal, 46, and her grandmother Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed while they were out for a Sunday walk.
A man has been charged with a crime, and his trial is set for September.
Elghawaby told CBC, “I’ve met Muslim women who say that if they hear a loud noise while walking down the street, it makes them feel scared.” London Morning.
“One young woman told me that her son is so scared of loud noises that he still pushes his mom onto the sidewalk, away from the road.”
Elghawaby Also promised to keep calling attention to bad laws.
“Bill 21 is unfair to people who wear visible religious symbols, and it hurts Muslim women who wear the headscarf more than other people,” she said.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: that does discriminate; it does discriminate against some people in Quebec.”
Elghawaby said that London was her first official stop and that she will be going to other places in Canada in the next few months.
She said that it is her job to try to get the federal government to make sure that Islamophobia doesn’t make its way into laws.
“I’m ready to have those hard conversations and talk about how different laws and policies in Canada may hurt Muslim communities.”
Call for Criminal Code update to define hate crim
Nawaz Tahir, a lawyer in London and head of the Muslim advocacy group Hikma Public Affairs Council, said he was sad that Elghawaby’s term got off to a rough start.
“I thought it was too bad that she had to apologize for calling out a bill that a judge had already said was unfair and for pointing out that a majority of Quebecers supported Bill 21,” he said.
But Tahir said he’s glad she made her first stop in London and that her work is important right now.
“I think the criticism of Amira just shows how important her job is, and even though Islamophobia is a problem all over the country, Bill 21 is a clear sign of it.”
Tahir also wants the Criminal Code to be changed so that there is a clearer definition of what a hate crime is.