Mr. Speaker, it's interesting. I can say anti-Semitism 100 times over. In fact, I was the minister for anti-racism for the Province of Ontario. I was the first person in this entire country to embed anti-Semitism into legislation. Ontario was the first province in the history of this country to have anti-racism legislation. I believe B.C. is only the second province. I was responsible for putting that term, along with anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, and many different elements like anti-indigenous hate, into a piece of legislation that exists today, that compels the current Ontario government to build an anti-racism strategy to collect disaggregated race-based data and to work towards collecting hate-based data. In fact, I had a special advisory committee, made up of very prominent members of the Jewish community, who personally advised me on that piece of legislation.
To hear the member opposite actually say I'm afraid to use that term.... My entire track record of my career at the provincial level as the minister of anti-racism spoke to these issues. You can go through any type of check into the work I've done. I built the first anti-racism strategy for Ontario. In fact, when I was a school board trustee, I was the first person to bring forward the collection of disaggregated race-based data, back in 2006. These issues are not new to me. I went to universities a decade ago to speak to Jewish students and Muslim students about hate on campus.
Scoring political points in a committee like this, taking one specific National Post article and using it out of nowhere to try to separate and create a wedge between members here—we won't allow that to happen.
We are very concerned about hate in this country, and the rise of hate. Since 2016, we have seen a drastic increase of online hate. We've seen a drastic increase of hate incidents, and it continues to happen in this country. It's dividing us.
I've been a victim of racism. I have been impacted by extreme forms of hate by people in this country, and I have dedicated my entire life in politics to fighting hate and looking for ways to create balance in this country. We want to look for ways to ensure that our Jewish friends, our citizens, our Muslim friends and citizens, indigenous communities, the Black community, and all people have the opportunity to find success in this country. That's the type of country I'm trying to build.
To use motions like this out of nowhere, without even collaborating with members on the other side to talk about these issues and look for meaningful ways to act—