Canadian Heritage committee  One of the things that would be really useful is for communities to have a sense of security. If communities feel safe, they can have different conversations, complicated conversations about the identity that the community is converging around, whether it's religious, whether it's racial, or whether it's professional.

Canadian Heritage committee  I was thinking of hyperbolic fear as along the lines of irrational, exaggerated fear of Muslims and Islam, the idea, for example, that if you think that Islam promotes violence, then you think Muslims are inherently violent people. That's hyperbolic and irrational and exaggerated, because Muslims across the board are not like that.

Canadian Heritage committee  The media plays an important role, of course, in perpetuating and sustaining ideas about Muslims as violent, but I want to think about the media in a more robust way, because the media is made of human beings who are in our society and they feed particular appetites. Without taking them off the hook or not holding them accountable, I want to say that when we're thinking about education, for example, education should happen more broadly and it should include, for example, media training sessions, so reporters can understand when they are participating in conversations that include entrenched ideas about Islam as inherently violent.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm done. Thank you.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think that laws can always be better, but I trust our legislative process and would like, based on what you're saying, to see it used more. I know that there has been a lot of hate propaganda happening in Canada and I am worried about this trend of people having an unfavourable opinion of Islam.

Canadian Heritage committee  The thing I was saying is that most of the times when I experience Islamophobia, or when my parents were making that call to the RCMP, when someone was calling and actually threatening to kill my family and saying things about Muslims and Islam in those threats, my parents did call the police, and the police reacted as though it might have been a prank call: “Don't worry about it; if something happens, let us know.”

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. It's Dr. Jasmin Zine.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. The problem with African Americans and criminalization, in terms of their standing the right to a fair trial, is a persistent issue in the United States. There is much that we can learn from that context. As for the Muslim community, I am not aware of data around this.

Canadian Heritage committee  I cannot, off the top of my head, think about a particular country that has been doing a great job all around. I think that different countries have different programs that are useful for us to think about. I know, for example, that the Ontario Human Rights Commission looked at the programs that were being used in the United States and has tailored them for Ontario.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for that question. I think if people believe there is a civilizational war between Islam and—quote, unquote—“the west”, having problematized those categories, I think it's not enough when people believe that to say that's not happening. That is something that needs to be demonstrated.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would agree with everything that was just said. I would also add that when the government does community consultations, it's important to see communities even as homogeneous. With regard to the Muslim community, we are just over a million people in Canada, just over 3% of the population.

Canadian Heritage committee  The only thing I would add is that maybe doing surveys directly with diverse communities would be really helpful. Also, in terms of the RCMP and making it easier, right now, there is often a crisis of confidence between communities and the police force, especially when certain segments of the population are overrepresented and overcriminalized.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Right, when I was a child. Yes, when my mother called the police, that's what they told her.

Canadian Heritage committee  From what we know about the recorded hate crimes, they're worse.