Ottawa’s new anti-Islamophobia advisor is facing backlash. Here’s what to know | 24CA News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s standing behind Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s first particular consultant on combating Islamophobia, as officers within the Quebec authorities proceed to name for her resignation.

Elghawaby, who was appointed final Thursday, has confronted criticism since her appointment was introduced over an opinion piece she co-wrote in 2019. In the piece, Elghawaby criticized Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans sure public-facing workers, together with academics and law enforcement officials, from sporting non secular symbols on the job.

While the Quebec authorities says the regulation is meant to defend secularism — the province’s official coverage of separating faith and state — critics just like the National Council of Canadian Muslims have referred to as it discriminatory and a regulation that “causes second-class citizenship.”

Federal cupboard ministers have confronted repeated questions in regards to the considerations from Quebec over the previous two days and strolling into his cupboard assembly on Tuesday, Trudeau stated he helps Elghawaby “100 per cent.”

“She has demonstrated, throughout her years of work, an … openness and a rigor that we need right now,” he stated, talking in French.

“I understand that dealing with Islamophobia will require important and sometimes difficult conversations, but we need someone who is knowledgeable, who is deeply grounded, and I know she’s the right person.”

She and co-writer Bernie Farber, former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, had stated within the 2019 op-ed that “the majority of Quebecers appear to be swayed not by the rule of law, but by anti-Muslim sentiment. A poll conducted by Léger Marketing earlier this year found that 88 per cent of Quebecers who held negative views of Islam supported (Bill 21).”

In a tweet, Elghawaby clarified late final week that she doesn’t consider Quebecers are Islamophobic. However, for officers within the Quebec authorities, her response has fallen quick.

Here’s what you could know in regards to the outcry.

Quebec’s minister chargeable for state secularism has described Elghawaby’s remarks in her 2019 op-ed as “abhorrent” — and her subsequent rationalization, he stated, was “unacceptable.”

“She must resign, and if she does not, the government must remove her immediately,” Jean-François Roberge stated in a press release on Monday.

The op-ed in query was written in reference to a Léger ballot, which was printed within the Montreal Gazette in 2019. The ballot advised that among the many Quebecers who’ve damaging emotions about Islam, 88 per cent supported Bill 21’s push to ban non secular symbols for public college academics.

2:09Bill-C21, combat in opposition to systemic racism wanted to fight Islamophobia: justice and public security ministers

It additionally advised that 28 per cent of these polled had a optimistic view of Islam, whereas 60 per cent had optimistic views of Catholicism.

The ballot was printed within the Montreal Gazette below the headline “A new poll shows support for Bill 21 is built on anti-Islam sentiment” — and Elghawaby cited that in her column in regards to the controversial laws not lengthy afterward.

“Unfortunately, the majority of Quebecers appear to be swayed not by the rule of law, but by anti-Muslim sentiment,” she and her co-author, Farber, wrote on the time.

“A poll conducted by Léger Marketing earlier this year found that 88 per cent of Quebecers who held negative views of Islam supported the ban.”

Since her appointment, the op-ed has resurfaced and sparked requires Elghawaby’s resignation from supporters of Bill 21 in Quebec. The day after her appointment, Elghawaby issued a sequence of tweets clarifying her previous remarks.

“I look to unify all Canadians across the country to fight Islamophobia,” she stated on Jan. 27.

“I don’t believe that Quebecers are islamophobic; my past comments were in reference to a poll on Bill 21. I will work with partners from all provinces and regions to make sure we address racism head on.”

Still, Roberge has doubled down on his name for her resignation, and former NDP chief Tom Mulcair penned a column within the Montreal Gazette on Tuesday arguing that “it was wrong of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to name Amira Elghawaby as Canada’s first special representative on combating Islamophobia.”

“Trudeau says she’s there to fight prejudice and build bridges. She is not in a position to do that and it’s not because of haters, it’s because of what she said,” Mulcair wrote.

“When your job is fighting prejudice and you’ve made statements in the past that sound like a reflection of your own prejudice, you withdraw them and, ideally, apologize. You don’t dig in, or try to explain them away.”

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez stated on Tuesday he was “deeply hurt” by Elghawaby’s column and stated on Tuesday that he had requested for a gathering together with her to debate them.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet introduced a deliberate assembly with Elghawaby for Feb. 1, after telling reporters her remarks had been “more divisive than unifying.”

When Elghawaby’s appointment was introduced, Stephen Brown, the CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, stated he “expected some pushback.”

“But the level of pushback and vitriol — It’s surprising and disappointing,” he stated.

“I think it’s very hard for anybody to believe that she could honestly be motivated by some deep-seated hatred of Quebecers.”

Had the federal government appointed somebody who was supportive of Quebec’s regulation, Brown says that particular person then “would have zero credibility.”

“They would immediately be denounced by the vast majority of Muslims in the country,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Brown says actual points impacting Muslim Canadians are falling below the radar, together with continued worries about rising hate crimes on this nation.

2:02Muslim Awareness Week launches in Montreal

Quebec’s relationship with faith is traditionally fraught.

The Catholic Church had a good grip on the province within the mid-Twentieth century — a actuality that in the end evoked an equally robust rejection within the province of faith’s position in public life. The province embraced its personal model of France’s Laïcité mannequin, or its coverage of official secularism, which is “quite different” culturally than what exists in the remainder of Canada, based on one Quebec-based human rights lawyer.

“They’ve created a sort of new state framework … that is attempting to cleanse from the state apparatus, if you will, any suggestion of religious views,” stated Pearl Eliadis, who can also be a professor at McGill college.

As the Quebec authorities defends Bill 21 as a bid to guard this Laïcité precept, the Superior Court of Quebec has raised considerations about its influence on non secular communities.

In his 2021 resolution, Superior Court Justice Marc-André Blanchard stated Bill 21 has “serious and negative” impacts on individuals who put on non secular symbols however is essentially authorized and doesn’t violate the Constitution.

Blanchard acknowledged that the regulation has “cruel” and “dehumanizing” penalties for sure folks, a lot of whom would now not have the ability to search out new jobs within the public service with out compromising their beliefs.

“I’m not unsympathetic to the idea that people don’t want to see people who might potentially proselytize … (but) we have no evidence that these people are doing the kinds of things that the secularists in Quebec are worried about,” Eliadis stated.

“If we’re going to be restricting fundamental rights, I think it needs to be evidence-based.”

To infer from the 88 per cent statistic alone that the “majority” of Quebeckers had been swayed by anti-Muslim sentiment is “a mistake,” Eliadis stated — however, she added, “she has clarified that she is not saying the majority of Quebeckers hold these views.”

“So that statement has now been made … I think we need to move on from that and take her in good faith, if you will,” she stated.

“I wish people would take a breath and give her a chance to do her work, and not assume that ‘Quebec bashing’ was necessarily what was involved … we all make mistakes.”