Status of Women Committee on June 17th, 2021

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Welcome, everybody, to meeting number 43 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

I call the meeting to order. Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.

Today we are beginning our study on eliminating hate crimes and violence against women and marginalized groups.

Witnesses, when you're ready to speak, you can click on your microphone icon to activate your mike, and address your comments through the chair. If you want to change your interpretation, if you look at the bottom of your screen, you will see that you can choose English, French or floor. When you're speaking, please speak slowly and clearly for our interpreters. When you're not speaking, your mike should be on mute.

I want to welcome all of our witnesses.

We have with us today Amira Elghawaby, human rights advocate. From Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada, we have Saadi Mahdi, regional vice-president, Asif Khan, national director, public relations; and Safwan Choudhry, director, media relations. From the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, we have Nuzhat Jafri, executive director.

Each of our witnesses will have five minutes to make their remarks, which will be followed by a round of questions.

We're going to begin with Amira for five minutes.

[Amira Elghawaby, Human Rights Advocate, As an Individual]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for convening today's meeting.

Good morning, respected parliamentarians and staff. Thank you so much for inviting me to present today at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

I am here in my personal capacity as a human rights advocate who “wears many hijabs”, as I like to say. I'm a founding board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, an organization that monitors hate in Canada, as well as a board member with the Silk Road Institute, an organization that fosters cross-cultural and interfaith understanding.

I'm also part of Canada's labour movement, specifically the Canadian Labour Congress, where we actually released a groundbreaking report in 2019 titled “Islamophobia at Work”. It's actually there that I will begin my remarks, by discussing the ways in which Muslim women and girls are especially vulnerable to hate crimes by virtue of their status as Muslim women.

It is the combination and interaction of gender, racialization and religion that make Muslim women vulnerable to bias-motivated violence and intimidation. Many Muslim women in Canada and around the world choose to wear head coverings like what I'm wearing today, my hijab, or the niqab or burka, for various reasons. We know that over the years the hijab and niqab have been, and sadly, continue to be at times, vigorously debated and reported on by Canadian media. They are frequently politicized quite negatively. In fact, currently, Bill 21 in Quebec prevents women from wearing a hijab if they choose to work in various professions, including teaching, the law and policing.

As noted in the CLC's report on Islamophobia, the interaction of gender, religion, race and culture is especially acute for Muslim women who cover. Their visibility puts them at higher risk and makes them much more vulnerable to gender-based Islamophobia. They are immediately identified as targets for perpetrators motivated by hatred of Muslims and gender-based violence.

Of course, we don't know the exact reason or the evidence found by police in the most recent horrific attack in London against the Afzaal family, but we do know it was motivated by hate toward Muslims, and it is highly likely that their religious clothing was the reason they were most tragically targeted. Our thoughts and hearts are with those families and those they have left behind, including little Fayez.

A 2018 qualitative study by University of Toronto researcher Sidrah Ahmad, titled “Invisible Violence Against Hypervisible Women”, shows a very high rate of unreported gender-based violence against Muslim women in the GTA. That qualitative report documents the everyday Islamophobic experiences and impacts on Muslim women. The Muslim women in the study reported being spat at, yelled at, sworn at and experiencing physical as well as sexual assaults. Of the 40 Islamophobic incidents documented in the study, only three were reported to the police.

At this point, if I may, I will actually share my own personal experiences with the committee. Several incidents throughout my lifetime of wearing the hijab in Canada have really brought home to me how fraught it can sometimes be to wear visible Muslim clothing. In my own neighbourhood here in Ottawa, in Orleans, I too was almost hit by a truck that was deliberately and very dangerously swerving toward me while the driver was yelling obscenities at me. I have repeatedly been harassed and yelled at. While I maintain that the vast majority of Canadians are loving people who really promote dignity for all, these currents of hatred unfortunately do run through our society. These currents are, of course, the focus of my speech today, and I hope, some of the remedies you'll be looking at.

As Statistics Canada noted in its 2018 release on police-reported hate crime, for all types of hate crimes, nearly a third, 32%, of victims reported to police between 2010 and 2018 were female. Violent incidents targeting Muslim and indigenous populations were more likely than other types of hate crimes to involve female victims. Of all victims of violent crimes targeting the Muslim population that were reported to police, 45% were women or girls, as was the case for 45% of victims of hate crimes against indigenous populations.

Statistics Canada noted that the relatively high proportion of female victims of hate crimes targeting Muslim and indigenous populations could be related to specific factors, meaning the practice of wearing head coverings makes religious identity more visible for Muslim women than for Muslim men.

What we've also seen, unfortunately, is visibly Muslim politicians, athletes and celebrities who have been targets of intense hate and vitriol, being threatened daily with violence, rape or murder. Many of them are forced to leave their careers for their safety. We have, sadly, many examples in the current Parliament. As many may know, MP Iqra Khalid received horrific threats when she tabled M-103 and we know that MP Salma Zahid, who wears the head scarf, has also faced some harassment as well. Of course, I can't speak to what she's gone through but I know that it is not easy to represent constituents while also wearing religious clothing.

Hate crime statistics are hugely unreported, especially in the Muslim community as there is a lot of fear of being blamed and shamed. Of course, there is distrust of law enforcement or the feeling that there's unfair over-surveillance and detention anyhow within our Muslim communities. In fact, according to Statistics Canada, two-thirds of hate crimes are unreported.

Furthermore, we also realize that there are serious problems with prosecuting hate crimes. This is according to the fact that police solved just 28% of hate crime incidents in 2017, as shown by a Stats Canada analysis. By comparison, among all Criminal Code violations, excluding traffic violations, 40% were solved by police in that same year. Even when the hurdle of reporting to police is cleared by victims of hate crimes, the chances of success are 12% lower than with other types of offences.

Online hate is another area in which we know there is spillover into real life. Online hate does disproportionately impact racialized people, including women and visibly Muslim women, where the agenda of online trolls and haters is to silence or harm women and to control who has a voice. This is an important point to note, especially for those who argue that limiting online content is a freedom of expression. There are limits to free expression, including hate speech, especially when violence and hate is planned or incited.

Many committee members today may be surprised to learn that a report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in the U.K. identified more than 6,600 online pages, accounts or groups in Canada that were spreading white supremacist or misogynistic views. On a per capita basis, Canada was shown to be one of the most active countries in the world when it comes to spreading toxic views.

With the work at the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, we have advanced recommendations to government on how best to address online hate, which does remain a very serious problem. We know, for instance, that deplatforming works—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry. That's the end of your time.

[Amira Elghawaby]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

We'll get the rest of it on the questions.

[Amira Elghawaby]

Sure. Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

I think we have Safwan here so we'll do a sound check with him and then we'll go to the next organization.

The next organization is Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada.

There are three of you. I'm not sure which one will start, but maybe, Ms. Mahdi, we'll start with you.

[Asif Khan, National Director, Public Relations, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada]

If it's okay, I'll go first and then we'll end with Saadia if that's all right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good. Please go ahead, Mr. Khan.

[Asif Khan]

Hello and assalam alaikum to my fellow Muslim friends here.

My name is Asif Khan. I'm the national public relations director of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada. We are a revivalist movement within Islam. We are also a persecuted community in many Muslim countries.

I'd like to thank the panel for inviting me to speak today; however, I will be brief and I'll extend some of my time to Saadia. I hope that will be okay. My colleague, Safwan, will also be brief as well. I'm sure Saadia's perspective will be much more valuable to the panel than hearing from us.

Before I do pass it off to Safwan, I would like to say that Islam's core objectives are twofold. The first is that everyone should attain to have a relationship with God and they should do so in their own way. The second objective is that everyone should serve humanity; that is, be kind to your neighbours, be kind to your countrymen and look after one another. The government is not in a place to promote the first objective, but the government can promote humanity as being core to the fabric of being Canadian.

Our community's motto is “Love for all and hatred for none”. If each person took this to heart and strived to be of service to others, there could be no hate: no hate towards people of different religions, ethnicities, race and especially gender.

I thank you for your time. Godspeed.

Safwan.

[Safwan Choudhry, Director, Media Relations, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada]

Thank you, Asif. Most importantly, thank you for organizing this wonderful panel and giving us this opportunity.

Just like Asif, I don't plan to take more than a few seconds so I will be brief and then Saadia will cover the majority of our points of view.

The only thing I wish to add here is that words matter and leadership has never been more important. In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson infamously described Muslim women in a burka as “letter boxes” and “bank robbers”. The following week there was an increased record of 375% in anti-Muslim incidents. More than half of such incidents in the following three weeks were directed towards Muslim women and 42% of street-based incidents directly referenced Prime Minister Johnson and the language that he used.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy of France stated that the problem of Muslim women's outfits is not a religious problem, that it is an issue of the freedom and dignity of women. This is a quote that I'm taking from the former president.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Yes, Mrs. Zahid.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I think there is an issue with the interpretation because I'm on the English channel and I'm hearing French.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Yes, I don't hear that on the floor, but let's suspend and we'll come back to you in just a second.

[Safwan Choudhry]

For the benefit of our member of Parliament, I'll just repeat the last couple of sentences.

The point I was making is that words matter. Right now, leadership has never been more critical. In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson made comments describing Muslim women's head covering and burka as “letter boxes” and “bank robbers” and there was a 375% increase in anti-Muslim hate in the following two weeks. Forty-two per cent of the incidents were street incidents directed towards women. The perpetrators referenced Prime Minister Johnson's words. I also referenced the former president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, who said that a Muslim woman's outfit is not a religious problem, but an issue of the freedom and dignity of women.

We find it really interesting that right now, in a time where every country, city and state has decided to make the face mask compulsory in order to combat the coronavirus, this very statement about this being a matter of dignity of women is in direct conflict with that.

We look to our leaders and their choice of words. We're obviously grateful for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who as early as today issued an important statement about an incident that took place at the mosque in Edmonton. We urge all of our leaders to also question other world leaders and the statements they are making.

Thank you. I yield the floor to Saadia.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Ms. Mahdi.

[Saadia Mahdi, Regional Vice-President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada]

Thank you, Safwan and Asif.

Assalam alaikum. Peace be upon you all.

I'm very thankful and honoured to have this opportunity to speak to you today about my experience of living in Canada as a Muslim woman.

Canada has always been a beacon of peace and respect in the world and celebrates multiculturalism as a strength. Today, this image is being attacked, and all Canadians must work hard to ensure that it is upheld.

In 1985, when I moved to Canada, I was not truly aware of the significance of our move. As Ahmadi Muslims, my family fled persecution in Pakistan. Many families also made this journey to Canada, which serves as a safe haven from religious persecution. I came with my father, Naseem Mahdi, who was sent here as an imam, a religious missionary, who would serve the community for the next 25 years.

Going to school was a very pleasant experience for me. Throughout my elementary and high school period, there were only a handful of Muslims in our school. I have very fond memories of my school days. My childhood in Maple, Ontario, was very pleasant, and I never experienced any Islamophobic or racist remarks, even though we were definitely a visible minority. Now I'm surprised and saddened that the atmosphere is changing from the wonderful experiences of my childhood to the current atmosphere, where hate-motivated attacks are on the rise. Hate crimes have exponentially increased, and Muslims are targets. Decades later, my own daughters have been called terrorists and other racial slurs at school.

The recent tragedy that occurred in London, Ontario, has shaken the Canadian Muslim family to our core. The horrifying fact that this innocent family was murdered while taking an evening walk just because they were Muslims was a sickening wake-up call to all of us that much work needs to be done to educate our fellow Canadians, to remind them of their true values and to remove myths and misconceptions that lead to the hatred of Muslims.

Recently we have seen it become more common for people to proudly share racist and hateful opinions online in social media and in person. Many Muslim women have reported being bullied and attacked for the way they dress because our hijab makes us a visible minority. Our scripture tells us to wear the hijab as a symbol of our modesty. It is meant to show that we are different and that our faith is an important facet of our identity.

Bill C‑21 in Quebec is a painful example of how dangerous it is for people in power to be misinformed. Banning people from wearing their religious clothing or symbols is not a reflection of a secular state, rather of an oppressive one. Freedom of religion and expression are guaranteed to us by the charter and, by passing this law, Quebec has unfortunately promoted the ideology that, if someone dresses differently, they are different. These misconceptions should be addressed, not validated by making such discriminatory laws.

I am a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, and our community has been working hard for many years to promote our motto, “love for all, hatred for none”, and work for and with Canadian society for the betterment of all. We hold regular events to promote peace and celebrate diversity. We have blood drives, donation campaigns and food drives, all in an effort to work cohesively with the greater community and to highlight that it is our faith that makes us better Canadian citizens rather than hinders us, which is the perception.

Although a lot of work is being done by many communities and politicians across Canada, like the introduction of motion 103 by MP Iqra Khalid condemning Islamophobia, there is still a long road ahead.

Moreover, acts that are driven by hate due to race, religion or ethnicity should be punished to the full extent of the law. The fact that the London, Ontario, attacker has been charged with terrorism is a step in the right direction in order to deter others from carrying out such horrific acts.

Canada has become the epitome of what tolerance and justice looks like and shines as an example for the rest of the world. In order for this reputation to be upheld, education is the most important step that we as a nation can take. Learning about Islamic values is the first step towards respect and friendship among Canadians.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you.

Now we will go to our final witness, Ms. Jafri, for five minutes.

[Nuzhat Jafri, Executive Director, Canadian Council of Muslim Women]

First of all, thank you so very much for inviting the Canadian Council of Muslim Women this morning, Madam Chair, parliamentarians, Madam Clerk and staff.

My name is Nuzhat Jafri, and I am the executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, CCMW.

I'm speaking to you from the traditional territory of the Anishinabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. It is also the land of the Petun and Huron-Wendat peoples, and it's recognized officially as the land of the Mississaugas of the Credit River, as they were here at the point of contact. This land is now home to many diverse first nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

The CCMW is an organization dedicated to the equality, equity and empowerment of Canadian Muslim women and girls. It was founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1982 by the late Dr. Lila Fahlman and a group of determined Muslim women who sought to channel their passion for faith-centred social justice work to create a more inclusive Canada for all. We have 17 chapters across Canada. Our mission is to affirm the identities of Canadian Muslim women and promote our lived experiences through community engagement, public policy, stakeholder engagement and amplified awareness of the social injustices that Muslim women and girls endure in Canada, while advocating for their diverse needs and equipping local CCMW chapters with the necessary resources to maximize national efforts and mobilize local communities to join the movement. We approach our work through an intersectional lens and recognize our diverse identities and expressions. We are but one voice among many.

On the evening of June 6, 2021, Talat Afzaal, her son Salman, her daughter-in-law Madiha, her granddaughter Yumna, and her grandson Fayez were out for a late spring walk in their London, Ontario, neighbourhood when the lives of four members of that beautiful family came to a crashing halt. Nine-year-old Fayez survived, but he remains in hospital after sustaining serious injuries. This mass murder and heinous attack was the work of a white supremacist who was filled with hate against Muslims.

Three of the four individuals who were murdered were women. In light of this tragedy and increasing Islamophobic attacks on Muslim women, it is appropriate that the committee undertake a study on violence against Muslim women and other targeted women, including examining online hate and cyber-bullying from an intersectional perspective.

With a spate of hate-motivated attacks on Black Muslim women in hijab in Calgary and Edmonton, and ongoing harassment and abuse of visible Muslim women, murder as the ultimate result of this hatred and violence is not a surprise.

While we don't know what Talat, Madiha and Yumna were wearing, they were definitely in the perpetrator's sight. I know of a family that lives steps from where this attack occurred. Women who wear head scarves in that family are afraid of leaving their home. That fear is palpable among Canadian Muslims, particularly Muslim women and girls who can be identified easily by their clothing.

Gendered Islamophobia is real. As part of our digital anti-racism education—or DARE—project, we recently invited Canadian Muslim women, girls, trans individuals and non-binary individuals to share their experiences of Islamophobia with us. I have a number of examples here, but I'm going to cite just a few because they've already been shared by my other sisters. Here's what they've said:

“I was sexually, physically and verbally assaulted on the SkyTrain for wearing the hijab.”

In high school, two hijab-wearing Muslim girls found their shared locker broken into. Upon attempting to open the lock with their key, it got stuck as gum was stuffed inside. While the girls struggled to open the lock, a group of other high school kids were watching and laughing at them.

“While working at a comic book store, I experienced verbal harassment by customers calling me a 'towel head' and a 'terrorist'.”

“I was verbally abused repeatedly and was spat on.”

“In elementary school, while in kindergarten, I was asked by another student if my parents were suicide bombers.”

These experiences are commonplace for many Muslim women and girls, and they are exacerbated for Muslim women with disabilities, trans persons, non-binary persons, and Black or indigenous Muslim women and girls because of the multiple and intersecting disadvantages they experience in Canadian society.

It is also important to recognize that 87% of Muslims are racialized and racism is very much part of their Canadian experience.

In Quebec, the situation is even worse because of an unjust law where systemic Islamophobia is practised in plain sight and Québécois Muslim women are denied employment in the public sector because they wear a head scarf. That law gives permission to discriminate against Muslim women in the province, with little chance of recourse.

In addition to overt Islamophobia, at the core of this abuse and violence are sexism and misogyny. We need to understand sexism as a form of social oppression that interconnects with race, religion, class and other systems of marginalization. Gender-based violence cannot be properly understood without addressing inequality based on race, religion, class, ability, and so on.

Marginalized women experience more sexism compared to other women. For example, Black Muslim women experience almost six times as much sex-based discrimination compared to non-Black Muslim women. One in three Black Muslim women experiences sex-based discrimination, while less than one in 10 non-Black Muslim women does. It is important to highlight the specific disadvantages experienced by Canadian Black Muslim women because racism, sexism and Islamophobia manifest themselves in ways that are distinct from other Canadian Muslim women.

Marginalized women experience more sexism in many places compared to other women. For example, compared to others, proportionately more Black Muslim women report experiencing discrimination in banks, stores and restaurants, when dealing with the police and when crossing the Canadian border.

While Islamophobic attacks have become a daily occurrence in Canada, gendered Islamophobia needs to be addressed distinctly because of its intersectional nature. Policy and legislative responses must take into consideration the specific circumstances of Canadian women and the effects of gendered Islamophobia on their daily lives, their performance in school, their success in the labour market, their experience of social integration and in all sectors of Canadian society.

It is not okay for a Muslim girl to have her hijab ripped off in her school. It is not okay for a Muslim woman to be assaulted on the subway. It is not okay for a Muslim woman to be denied employment because she wears a head scarf. It is not okay for a Muslim woman to be murdered because of her faith.

Canada needs to pass meaningful legislation to address online hate. Better reporting of hate crimes, including data collection that considers the intersectionality of Canadian Muslim women, girls, trans and non-binary persons.

White supremacist terrorists must be stopped in their tracks. Their groups must be disbanded and rendered illegal, and an active program of de-radicalization of their members must be a priority for the Canadian government.

The objective of terrorists is to terrorize and frighten their targets and disempower and debilitate them. We at the Canadian Council of Muslim Women will not let the terrorists achieve their objectives. Our commitment to equality, equity and empowerment of Canadian Muslim women and girls is stronger than ever and we will continue to do whatever we can to ensure that our resolve is unshaken.

We encourage members of this committee to follow our digital anti-racism education, or DARE, project and participate in our anti-Islamophobia and countering cyber-hate workshops. You can learn more about the project and register for the workshops at our daretobeaware.ca website. We are grateful to the Department of Canadian Heritage for its financial support of this project. Incidentally, Amira Elghawaby is actually the facilitator for our anti-Islamophobia workshop.

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Now we'll go into our first round of questions, with Ms. Wong for six minutes.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing me to speak on this very important issue. Through you, I thank all the witnesses.

While we all understand the importance of discussing this issue in our committee, I would be remiss if I did not recognize that this study was, unfortunately, forced by the recent attack against a Muslim family in London, Ontario. Hate is hate.

In the riding of Richmond Centre, we have been dealing with a rise in anti-Asian racism that has run amok even across the nation. What my community has had to endure is beyond words.

Given that knowledge, I truly understand the pain and suffering that the Muslim community in Canada is experiencing and the pain that our colleague from London—Fanshawe must be experiencing. It is for these reasons that I would humbly request that I cede my time to Ms. Lindsay Mathyssen.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good. We'll go to Ms. Mathyssen.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to my colleague Madam Wong. It's very kind.

Yes, my community, my hometown of London, has seen such incredible violence and incredible hurt and pain in the last few weeks, but I know that's been shared by every other community across Canada. I've heard from so many of my colleagues who said, “I went to a march. I went to a vigil.” People are reaching out to me, and I've heard from people across this country as well, women who are scared to cross the street. It's truly our responsibility now to try to find ways to address this adequately and quickly.

I put forward a motion last week in the House of Commons which was adopted unanimously. It calls for a national action summit on Islamophobia to be held this summer. I would like to hear from all of the witnesses, if I may, on some of the measures, some of the actual actions, they want to see from this summit, and give us recommendations on how to move forward with that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Go ahead, Ms. Elghawaby.