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.