Citizenship and Immigration committee  It would have been a lot easier. Ms. Fakhri, last week we had a witness like you here, Mr. Tahir Gora of the Canadian Thinkers' Forum. He said there are a number of people who criticize the name of the bill, calling it pretty loaded, but that his group believes in “calling a spade a spade” and believes that violence against women is absolutely barbaric and must be addressed strongly, as forced marriages, polygamy, and honour killings happen every day around the world under the guise of cultural practices.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I certainly believe we should endorse this bill in terms of curbing all those malpractices that have been mentioned in this bill—polygamy and forced marriages.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I personally believe that calling a spade a spade should not a problem in a free society. I was born and raised in a Muslim family and in a Muslim South Asian culture. First of all, we have to define the culture. When someone asks me who I am, I say that I am Punjabi, South Asian, born in Pakistan, and my faith is Islam.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, sir. Before I comment on that, I'll just add one line on, as you said, Canadian law versus faith-based laws. Certainly it's not just one cleric who is saying this. This is the basis for the whole sharia law and what some of the clerics look for. We as Canadians need to fight against that mindset, for sure.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I certainly feel that this bill would provide an additional tool in terms of tightened legislation against polygamists and forced marriages issues, because what we have seen and what we see today is that polygamy cases, for instance, are not registered and they don't come under the radar.

Public Safety committee  I'm not an Internet lawyer or expert on how to address Internet radicalization. Through our research we see so many Facebook groups and pages in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, and I'm sure Canadian law enforcement agencies probably don't have full access to the content on those Facebook pages and groups.

Public Safety committee  Yes, it is important to talk to parents. Also, there's a need to create an awareness, as I said, in those languages particularly, because most parents who are Pakistani, Afghani, Arab, and among the Middle Eastern diaspora don't even interact with the community at large. Law enforcement agencies need to talk to parents and those parents need to be aware of what's going on in their basement with the young fellows, and not just the youth.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  Yes. There are so many clips by Canadian radical elements on those websites or those Facebook pages or those social media pages, especially YouTube. They serve well in spreading hatred toward society in jihad ideology. Those must be taken down. That's the only way to block that hatred and that jihad ideology.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely, they should have.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, sir. We clearly see this legislation as very vital to addressing certainly those issues, because in doing our research work, we really discovered alarming factors in our Muslim diaspora. As I said, being born and raised in a Muslim community, we are able to see that high level of fracture around us.

Public Safety committee  I actually believe that this bill does have some tools, but it should have more actually in terms of curbing jihad propaganda on the Internet by Canadian fellows.

Public Safety committee  Further to our study on Bill C-51, we welcome, from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Scott Tod, the deputy commissioner for the investigation of organized crime for the Ontario Provincial Police. From the Canadian Thinkers' Forum we have Tahir Gora, director general, and Arooj Shahida, director. By way of video conference from London, United Kingdom, as an individual, we have Peter Neumann, from ICSR. Do we have you live, here, sir?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is with great pride that I say we successfully built businesses here, and it is the same experience for my colleague, Tahir Gora. I know countless others from all over the world who have shared the immigrant experience in Canada. We all know that in this increasingly globalized, competitive world, we will continue to need immigrants of all stripes to spur our economy, to foster innovation, and to contribute, as have many countless millions before them, to building a strong and more prosperous Canada.