Yes.
Just days ago, a man physically assaulted a woman, a Muslim wearing her hijab, who was peacefully protesting right here in Ottawa, outside the EY Centre. He walked up to her and struck her to the ground. She was taken to hospital for treatment for her severe injuries.
Quite frankly, it's incidents like these, among others, that are very concerning and are creating space for more blatant Islamophobia to occur.
Another woman had her hijab torn off and was verbally accosted by another woman.
Even at the beginning of this week, at an advocacy event, one of our own board members at NCCM was accosted by a man, close to Queen's Park, because she's a woman who wears hijab.
These sorts of incidents are happening with alarming frequency in Canadian streets. It just goes to show that right now there is a real problem with Islamophobia. For some reason, people feel that it's okay to accost Muslim women in the street who are wearing a hijab.
That's why I go back to our recommendations. It's so important for members of this committee to stand up and clearly denounce Islamophobia. It's really important to look at the recommendations made by the Senate committee and it's important to adopt these so that we can move towards actually making sure that all members of our society, including Muslim women, can safely walk the streets in Canada.