I think a national strategy would be a welcome development. It would be a step in the right direction.
In our view it should encompass the following components: first, it should emphasize education of young children. It's remarkable that as an immigrant, I grew up in a much more homogeneous society, but my children today go to public school, to a French immersion program here in Winnipeg, and they have friends from all different walks of life. I think it's important that in schools we work with young children to instill the values of diversity and inclusiveness from an early age.
It's also important to encourage communities to share good practices. Again, I would like to come back to the point that a lot of good work is already happening at the grassroots level, but we need a platform for that to be shared and celebrated. That will empower those who may not have had those experiences yet to try to engage as well with their own communities.
The second point made by our colleagues from Newfoundland is that we have to involve the grassroots communities and consult with them, because a lot of the work is being done by them.
The other aspect that has come out of your committee's deliberation is Islamophobia. What is the definition, what is the extent of it, and so on? I think there need to be grants to academic experts in universities to study this issue further, whether it's Islamophobia or racism and discrimination in general, to inform our policy-making with scholarly research that has withstood the test of peer review and so on.