I use my name as an example. My name is Hassan Yussuff, and I don't know whether anybody would distinguish who I am versus somebody else they may want to be suspicious of in our country.
We are a unique country with a unique character. I just happened to come back from Germany on Tuesday. I was over there in a forum with the Chancellor of Germany. It was remarkable that somebody noted that the fact that I was the president of the Canadian Labour Congress reflected what they have as a vision of our country. It's a very diverse country where people of many cultures, religions, and languages have come here to speak.
When I travel I wear it on my sleeve. I don't pretend that I'm anybody else. I'm a Canadian and I'm proud of my country. But I think we need to take care to ensure, as we are dealing with threats to our country, that we don't inflame the rhetoric that would ostracize people who have names like mine and more importantly have to go about justifying their existence and their defence of their own country as a Canadian. It's fundamental that we take care.
I speak to many of my colleagues in the field who tell me they're extremely worried about the negative impact all this debate is having on their kids, having to now justify themselves and their religion in their schools, which is unwarranted because I think you as lawmakers but we as Canadians as a whole—my organization specifically—have a responsibility to ensure that we can continue to build the social harmony that exists in this country and ensure that we build a country that respects the diversity of our own nation.