Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 1st, 2017

[Cecil Roach]

I am familiar with it.

This is the challenge that we face, because it depends on government priorities, obviously. I'm calling for a national action plan, and I think we need the kind of action plan that will survive changes of government. I'm not sure how we do that, but I think it's critical that we put those kinds of things in place because Canada, as a country, has to move on. As we now discover, we are becoming an increasingly diverse country. I think we need to not just become welcoming but work on how we include those diverse communities that are making our country home. We need an action plan that will help us to do that, and one that can survive changes of government.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Hutchinson, can you answer that question as well? You're familiar with the mandate that ended for that national plan against racism. I'm sure you're familiar with that. What are your thoughts on how that could be re-engaged?

[Don Hutchinson]

As I mentioned in regard to religious discrimination, I think it is critical that the recommendations from this committee, as Mr. Roach has said, look beyond the next election, or even the election after that. The communication that we've heard from Gord Downie, who was listening to aboriginal voices; that I mentioned hearing from a Mi'kmaq friend; and that extends throughout a lot of the aboriginal community is that we need to look seven generations to the future.

That's 150 years. I suggested looking at least 50 years down the road. We need to do the same thing in regard to other areas of discrimination. It has to be something that survives governments. It may start here, but it must be given a life of its own to continue, through NGOs and other government agencies. That may require a reporting mechanism that brings back progress reports, probably to this committee if it's a recommendation of this committee that it end up being approved by Parliament.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Now we go to Mr. Breton for the Liberals for seven minutes.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Roach, in 2016, there was an unfortunate event in your school board that the media reported on quite a bit, when a principle in the school board made comments against Muslims on social media.

The matter was taken to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, which decided that a strategic plan against racism had to be established, if I am not mistaken.

Your school board implemented proactive measures rather than recommendations to make sure this did not happen at the school board again. An expert panel also reviewed the incidents. According to our information, however, there have been other similar cases in recent years. Recently, last spring, the expert panel made specific recommendations to the school board.

How were those recommendations received and are they being implemented? Moreover, if you think the recommendations are good, can they be exported to other school boards? Finally, how can the government use that type of recommendation?

[Cecil Roach]

Thank you.

Yes, our board did go through a very tumultuous time. We had 21 directions from the Ministry of Education including, for example, the establishment of a human rights office, which we've done. We do extensive training in human rights and in equity, in terms of the establishment of an integrity commissioner and so on, and there is now a clearer policy around managing incidents, such as what happened with the Islamophobic post by the particular principal.

I have extensive connections throughout the boards in the province, and I think we are all learning from this and have grown from this. The recommendations were, I think, well received, and they outline the kind of work that most boards should be doing anyway, whether it's data collection, or managing complaints of discrimination, or dealing with human rights complaints, or the kind of training that all school leaders, system leaders, and teachers need to undergo, in order to manage a board as diverse as our board.

In the school district, since 2012, we're a growing board, but all of our growth comes from immigration. Last year, through our reception centre, we had 3,000 new students enter and that's the only source of growth. We know in some of our regions, such as East Gwillimbury, which is a small community northeast of us, it was 24,000 and it will be 81,000 by 2025, and we know that all that growth is coming from immigration. Speaking with the mayor, she'll tell you the next place of worship to be built will not be a church.

Clearly, we are at the cusp of change. I think it will be a massive change throughout the country, and the census has told us this. The question is how we work as a nation to create the kind of welcoming communities where families like my family can grow and thrive and benefit from the wonderful opportunities this country has to offer. I believe that we need to do that by ensuring that all of our students, regardless of their social identities, are treated fairly, that they're respected, and that they're welcomed.

Yesterday we had a conference for our LGBTQ students, and we had over 300 students and their allies attend to look at the kinds of strategies we need to put in place to make sure that our schools are places where they feel safe, where they feel included, and where they feel respected.

I think we have work to do, but we are on our way to doing the work, and those recommendations certainly were a good spur in terms of getting us on that road.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

These events are still recent, as are the measures that were implemented. From what we have heard, there has been a lot of awareness raising and education for all staff.

In your opinion, has systemic racism decreased since these recommendations were implemented? In your opinion, have other school boards in Ontario or elsewhere applied the measures you have implemented?

[Cecil Roach]

I think what has happened has forced us to be clear in terms of a process for managing incidents of hate and discrimination, because we really had to rebuild trust with our communities in terms of how we managed these kinds of issues. We had lost the trust of a lot of communities.

Whereas since last year we've unfortunately seen a rise in incidents of hate.... Some like to say it's Trump, but I think those things have always been there. As I said, some people have been able to crawl out of their dark corners and speak more loudly than they have in the past, but I think most school boards across the province know that they have to be very explicit and deliberate in managing and dealing with these issues, and calling things what they are. When it's racism, we're going to name it racism. When it's Islamophobia, we're going to name it Islamophobia. When it's homophobia, we're going to name it homophobia. We're not going to hide behind euphemistic language with these things.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Roach.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

We have a few minutes left before we ask the witnesses to make way for the next hour.

Mr. Roach, you've repeatedly talked about truth. I think one of the things we saw in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was that they actually faced the truth. I have heard from many people that there is a danger because of the politically correct environment in which we live, so that people don't like to speak the truth because it names them and somebody thinks that they can then name them something if they speak the truth. How then do we get the truth through what you talked about, which is data gathering?

I think the thing about data gathering is that it's not just statistics. Statistics tell us something, but they don't tell us everything. Regarding that qualitative and experiential stuff, how do you see the federal government, which has no role in primary and secondary education, finding a way to ask the primary and secondary boards to collect data themselves for input into some sort of national database? Can we work through the Canadian Association of Principals? What is a way to get that to happen?

Community data comes from the police. Statistical and demographic data comes from StatsCan. How do we get at that life lived for school kids between the ages of K to 12 when we have no jurisdiction?

[Cecil Roach]

That's the million-dollar question, actually. As I said, I believe that, if we start funding community initiatives and if you ensure that some of that funding goes to young people, particularly young people who are in schools and universities, who can come up with the kinds of plans that ensure that we build safe and welcoming communities that are inclusive, I think that will help.

I also think that, perhaps in working with the ministers of education, the Government of Canada can figure out some sort of strategy around the kind of support that can be offered in this area. I know that the big issue with collecting data to get at the truth is that it's somewhat expensive for many districts. For a board like ours of 125,000 students, when we attempted to do the data collection, it was going to cost us about $300,000. It's not cheap.

Finding ways of working with our first ministers is a possibility, I think. Also, through the federal budget, using monies earmarked for that, is certainly one way of helping,

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Mr. Hutchinson, I'll give you a couple of minutes to add to that information about data collecting.

[Don Hutchinson]

It's amazing what StatsCan can do—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, I know.

[Don Hutchinson]

—and what StatsCan has that isn't made public, unless you ask for it and unless you can understand the tables. They are collecting data on this type of activity already through different kinds of polling, as are a number of NGOs. Certainly, in the Jewish community, there's polling of students taking place in the high schools. In the LGBTQ community, there's polling taking place. It's happening through NGOs. Also, polling is taking place in the evangelical community.

I think that Mr. Roach's suggestion to work on providing a funding base, and perhaps something that's a joint federal-provincial type of initiative, could be very valuable. Statistics Canada can easily adjust questions that they ask between the census polling that will help you generate answers as well. For example, “Have you been subject to discriminatory behaviour? Have you been subject to something that you would consider hateful, based on your religion or based on your race?”, and those types of things because they're already collecting the religion and race data.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Roach, for coming and presenting to us. It was very informative.

I will now suspend for a couple of minutes while we get to the next hour.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the heritage committee is studying systemic racism and religious discrimination in Canada. In our second hour, we have the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims with Barbara Landau, co-chair, and Shahid Akhtar, co-chair. As well, we have the Assembly of First Nations, and it's our honour to welcome Grand Chief Perry Bellegarde and Jed Johns to this table.

We shall begin. You have 10 minutes within which to give your presentation, and then we will go to a question and answer session.

I shall begin with the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims. You can share your time, but you have only 10 minutes between you.

Thanks.

[Shahid Akhtar, Co-Chair, Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

We will divide our time into five minutes each. Considering that we have only five minutes each, I'll put myself on fast-forward.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'll indicate when you have one minute left.

[Shahid Akhtar]

Thank you.

The Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims is the first bilateral Jewish-Muslim organization dedicated to creating co-operation between Jews and Muslims in combatting anti-Semitism and prejudice against Muslims. CAJM was established at a time when Islamophobia was not even a known concept; the word had not even been coined.

I will just mention three very brief points, because you have our written submission as well.

My first point is, since you're dealing with systemic racism and religious discrimination, there is no worse demonstration of systemic racism than the genocidal elimination of an entire group based on race, religion, or ethnicity. There's no worse example of that than what is happening to Rohingya Muslims in Burma. The committee can play an extremely important role, because the government that is perpetrating these crimes against humanity is headed by an honorary Canadian citizen.

You, Madam Chair, and members of your committee know that Canadian citizenship, honorary or otherwise, is a badge of honour. Anyone who tramples Canadian values should not be allowed to do so. Parliament has to be very cognizant of this fact. Through you, I hope the message will be taken back to Mr. Bob Rae, the special envoy appointed by the Prime Minister, that he has to convey the most forceful message to this government that the genocide, the carnage, the ethnic cleansing has to stop, and it has to stop immediately. If it doesn't, I would urge you to persuade your members to withdraw that honorary citizenship, that honour, from Aung San Suu Kyi.

My second point is about the shameless act of the Quebec lawmakers, taking away the human rights of a specific group, an identifiable group of women, just because they happen to be Muslims. With Bill 62, the lawmakers are nudging the province and the nation in the direction of those dark ages when it was okay to tell women what to wear and what not to wear. The discrimination is rationalized with the lame excuse that some people feel uncomfortable by the way certain Muslim women dress.

As Jews and Muslims, we are concerned that if this approach is accepted, who will be next? Will Orthodox Jews be next? They have been the victims of discrimination as recently as the 1960s, where at the beaches there were plaques saying “Jews and Blacks not allowed”. Will the Buddhists or the Sikhs be next because somebody doesn't like their robes, their turbans, or their kirpans? Are we restarting a debate where burkini and bikini are contesting with each other?

Anti-Semitism is directed not only at but between Jews and Muslims. I would very much want the committee to take it upon itself to persuade the members of Parliament to use Canada's international credibility to call for an international conference between Israel and all Muslim countries. Bring them together to create back-channel relationships with those Muslim countries that do not at this time have diplomatic relationships with Israel or with each other.

With that, I will skip the next point I had and move to Barbara Landau, my co-chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Before we go to Ms. Landau, I was going to say that you might be able to bring up that second point in an answer to a question.

[Shahid Akhtar]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Landau.

[Barbara Landau, Co-chair, Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims]

Thank you.

While Canada has an excellent world reputation, we cannot be complacent. Sadly, there are continuing divisions within and across religious, cultural, racial, and other lines. I'm going to comment on some current areas of tension and then offer recommendations. I've already submitted notes from October 4 and new notes, but my statements were too long so I'm compressing them today. I have my written submission.

Number one is the language of motion 103, or a competition of victimhood. There's tension within and between the Jewish and Muslim communities, as Shahid said, over the language of M-103. Behind so many conflicts is fear, fear of not having incidents of racism, discrimination, or identity taken seriously. While the fears are legitimate, often the tactics used for raising them are divisive and exacerbate tensions between groups that are both victims of stereotyping individuals. The controversy suggests that the absence of a specific mention of anti-Semitism implies that hatred directed at Jews is being ignored, despite a similar motion previously endorsed by the government that specified anti-Semitism.

Motion 103 was put forward at a tragic time in Muslim Canadian relations when six innocent Canadian Muslim men were murdered at Friday prayers. To its credit, at least nine progressive synagogues responded with empathy by forming circles of peace around nine mosques during Friday prayers. Muslims responded with tears of gratitude and immediate bonds of friendship were felt by both groups.

However, a large Jewish organization, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, CIJA, responded quite differently. It circulated a newsletter to its extensive email list with a fear-inducing story about a sermon delivered several years earlier by a visiting speaker. The message was anti-Semitic but without context or any evidence that it sparked anti-Semitic incidents. This coincided with CIJA's message denouncing M-103. CAJM criticized this approach as divisive and lacking in empathy in a letter published in the Canadian Jewish News, which is in my submission.

A similar incident was reported in the Toronto Star with respect to prayers led by Imam Ayman Elkasrawy at the Masjid Toronto mosque. Several papers reported that some of the prayers were anti-Semitic. B'nai Brith Canada urged Ryerson to fire the imam from his job as a teaching assistant and as an assistant imam at the mosque. Again, CIJA circulated an article raising fears of anti-Semitism and potential terror. The imam apologized and offered to dialogue with Jewish leaders to find out what caused offence. His apology was not accepted and he was not given an opportunity to correct any offence. He was fired without investigation from both jobs.

Bernie Farber, former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress and Mosaic Institute, offered to meet. He didn't believe that the imam was an anti-Semite after meeting him. Mr. Farber invited him to attend several cultural sensitivity sessions, which he arranged with Dr. Karen Mock and other multi-faith clergy. He asked a journalist to observe. The journalist wondered if the prayers were interpreted correctly and asked several Arabic scholars to translate. The translations showed the quote had been mistranslated to appear more negative.

We need to take seriously the reality of both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and not fan the flames of fear and hatred of each other as a way to justify our shared—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute.