Justice committee  Yes, it has multiplied. Anything that's adding to the reservoir of hate causes the reservoir to rise. It doesn't matter what source it's coming from.

Justice committee  I'll have to take your word for section 319. I do not know what it is. However, if what you're describing is the case, you can certainly disagree about theology. I don't see how it should extend to hatred or a promotion of prejudice—and certainly never to violence.

Justice committee  As I mentioned, the rise of anti-Muslim hatred from one category of the building blocks has an unknown effect, but it probably has a real effect on Islamophobia coming from other building blocks. There certainly is a small but real minority of Canadians who think that Canada is a construct for people of European heritage.

Justice committee  Yes, you are correct in your assessment. Even the word “Islamophobia” is hard to define and is much harder to define than “anti-Semitism”. People are confused and wonder if not liking Islam as a theology makes one an Islamophobe. That's not true. The word is difficult to define.

Justice committee  Mr. Ali, there are several things that my wife and I are speaking about to people at the provincial level regarding Islamophobia in the court system. On a federal level, one measure I would like to see is the ability for a judge to include a vehicle as a weapon when they say there's a weapons ban.

Justice committee  I'll speak about what it means to me. It came as a very necessary and very healing type of decision. The day after that decision came down, I was driving my son to the gym, and on our drive there, we passed by two men wearing turbans who I assume were Sikh men. I thought to myself, “Boy, from what happened yesterday, you guys are safer today.”

Justice committee  If you are a community that's marginalized, you're going to need—

Justice committee  That's the wrong question.

Justice committee  The government should be responsible for building cohesion and for stopping hatred. If you're forcing secularism and taking away people's rights, then—

Justice committee  —that's not secularism anymore. That [Inaudible—Editor] religion.

Justice committee  I would need examples from you when you ask that question.

Justice committee  No, I don't think that works. I think you may have seen some illustrations about equity and equality. If everyone is not starting at the same standing point, then everyone won't realize their full potential.

Justice committee  What I know about Bill C-63 I've heard through the media. I haven't read the bill myself.

Justice committee  To my general knowledge, this is a very positive development and it's overdue. The online space is really a wild west. I fully expect to get—and maybe every member of this panel will too—comments through social media about our appearance here today. I typically expect to get comments like “Go back where you came from” or “You should feel lucky that you're here”.

Justice committee  That's correct.