Thank you very much, MP Zahid.
Yes, as I said before, over the past eight months there's been an enormous rise in Islamophobia across the country. We've seen a 1,300% increase in cases reported to our legal clinic at the National Council of Canadian Muslims.
One of the most egregious examples that came across our desk was that of a young boy whose name is Hamza. He's a Muslim student in a special needs program at a York Region District School Board high school. Hamza was violently attacked by a group of students who were calling him “Hamas” instead of Hamza, among other racist and Islamophobic slurs.
That vicious attack left Hamza bloodied with a fractured nose. He was having difficulty breathing, among other health issues, but the school failed to call an ambulance or respond to Hamza's medical and other needs.
It was after immense frustration with the school's response that Hamza's parents were forced to move him to another school, and this is while the bullies themselves remained in the school. This is just one of many examples of the most vulnerable members of our community paying the price for Islamophobia in our society.