Thank you so much, honourable Chair and members of the committee. I appreciate this opportunity allowing me to share with you today.
As mentioned, my name is Navaid Aziz, and I am a classically trained Muslim scholar. I have served as an imam for over 10 years in Calgary. From 2012 to 2015, we saw a surge of young Muslims travel overseas to join extremist groups and factions, and it was at this time that I began my own personal study of violent extremism to develop an expertise as much as I possibly could.
I have served as an expert witness with the Supreme Court of British Columbia in a terrorism-related case. I have mentored and helped in the rehabilitation of several individuals charged with terrorism offences, and I've published two papers, one on the reintegration and rehabilitation of Canadian and foreign fighters and a second on a brief guide to right-wing extremism in Canada.
I'm hoping that my perspective today will be unique in the sense that it will be primarily focused on a community-focused point of view.
Starting off with 2012 to 2015, an insurmountable amount of pressure was applied to the Muslim community as to why these problems were happening in the Muslim community, why Muslims were not better integrated, and what the Muslim community was doing to solve this problem. A community that is not homogeneous or monolithic was asked to deal with an issue that it was not responsible for. It was not given any further support other than being told what to do, and it had no prior experience in dealing with such issues.
Law enforcement and policy-makers had securitized the relationship with the Muslim community. It infiltrated mosques with informants, which created a sense of distrust. Relationships were built on the basis of collecting information to facilitate the collecting of information for prosecution, and no support was provided when needed. It also created a perception of good Muslims and bad Muslims. Those who co-operated were good, and those who didn't were bad. The average community member was not afforded any neutrality.
Multiple experts have also pointed out throughout the years that there was a disproportionate number of terrorism-related prosecutions on the Muslim community within Canada.
I struggle with this introduction, my dear committee, to point out that, in what we have seen in 2016 onwards in the rise of populism and right-wing extremism, the Muslim community was a primary target. In 2017, we witnessed the Quebec mosque massacre, and in 2021 the Afzaal family in London, Ontario, was murdered in cold blood. May we never forget these people.
We did not see the same questions being posed to other communities. Why was this happening? What are they doing to solve their own problems?
We did not see the securitization of relationships in the sense that informants were proposed and put forth in very high numbers, nor did we see a dichotomy created of people being labelled as good people or bad people. This is not to say that this is the response that should be expected, but this is to point out that we have some serious problems at an institutional level that need to be addressed.
What am I proposing and what do we need to look at? With regard to my proposal, I suggest that when we look at funding, we look at three approaches.
Number one, with regard to the security infrastructure proposal, we need to understand that not all minority groups will be able to access this grant or this bursary because there is very little history in terms of them actually applying for such grants and the support is not provided. It is very difficult for them.
Number two, with regard to sustainable funding for CVE initiatives across Canada, particularly in the province of Alberta, the Organization for the Prevention of Violence saw an influx of numbers come in, particularly in March and April of 2020, after January 6 and after the freedom convoy. Oftentimes we may think that this may increase right-wing radicalization, but it also created an opportunity to be introspective, where people were seeking support for themselves and their family members when they saw them go down a dangerous path. These programs do not have sustainable funding but are dependent on grants and bursaries as well.
My last proposal for funding is with regard to research to look deeply into what the environments are that create such forms of violent extremism, and this needs to be the primary research.
My last proposal in terms of a recommendation is that, when we look at relationships, we need to have a community-focused addition to this so that, as we look at equity, diversity and inclusion, it's not just that at a physical level or the physical representation is increased, but even representation in terms of thoughts and ideas and sources need to be included as we include equity, diversity and inclusion in our infrastructures and in our boards at that level.
That is what I wanted to share with you in my five minutes. Thank you so much.