Canadian Heritage committee  I think the idea of collecting data or a data registry is very important. I think maybe one or two other priorities would be working with educational institutions, with younger folks—university and high school and even earlier than that—to try to foster the salient ethic of res

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. I think some of the local nuances that would need to be taken into account in Manitoba are first that we have a very assertive, vibrant, and growing indigenous community in Winnipeg—an urban indigenous community—as well as on the reserves. I think those experiences ha

Canadian Heritage committee  If I understand it, the question is regarding the national strategy.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think a national strategy would be a welcome development. It would be a step in the right direction. In our view it should encompass the following components: first, it should emphasize education of young children. It's remarkable that as an immigrant, I grew up in a much mor

Canadian Heritage committee  I think they're both great provinces, and so are the rest of the provinces and territories. Generally speaking, Canadians—and I've lived in the U.S. and Canada—have this ethic of “live and let live”, which is a wonderful way to conduct our lives. I think we are culturally influen

Canadian Heritage committee  I think it's very important to be able to deeply study these phenomena, track them, and record data. One of the challenges we have is the lack of data so that we can understand the extent of this problem and this issue. The second thing is that communities at the grassroots lev

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, for sure. Some of the statistics we referenced were from the Statistics Canada study, which showed that hate crimes against Canadian Muslims increased by 253% between 2012 and 2015, that the most targeted racial group was the black community, that the most targeted group of

Canadian Heritage committee  No, these are Canadian statistics.

Canadian Heritage committee  From the Winnipeg Police Service we know that in 2015 there were 19 confirmed cases of hate crimes and two suspected cases of hate crimes. They don't have data more recent than that at this point.

Canadian Heritage committee  Obviously, we are reporting anecdotal evidence from media reports and from community members, but I think we're confident in saying that we have seen a spike over the past couple of years in the number of incidents—against Muslims and members of other communities, but definitely

Canadian Heritage committee  We do a lot of outreach. We have speakers go to visit churches, schools, and other institutions. We get a lot of questions that are just flat out the result of misinformation. People are receiving misinformation that creates fears of things like sharia law and certain cultural pr

Canadian Heritage committee  Governments can play an important role in supporting initiatives and projects that create understanding between Canadians of all walks of life. Education, in addition to our existing hate laws, is our best defence, and offence, in dealing with racism and hatred. We need to empowe

Canadian Heritage committee  This is Idris Elbakri, the past president of the Manitoba Islamic Association.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Honourable members, thank you for the invitation to contribute to this important discussion on behalf of the Manitoba Islamic Association, or MIA. My name is Idris Elbakri. I am the past president of the MIA. My colleague is Mr. Osaed Khan, the current p