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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s standing behind Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s first particular consultant on combating Islamophobia, as officers within the Quebec authorities proceed to name for her resignation.
Elghawaby, who was appointed final Thursday, has confronted criticism since her appointment was introduced over an opinion piece she co-wrote in 2019. Within the piece, Elghawaby criticized Quebec’s Invoice 21, which bans sure public-facing staff, together with academics and cops, from carrying spiritual symbols on the job.
Whereas the Quebec authorities says the regulation is meant to defend secularism — the province’s official coverage of separating faith and state — critics just like the Nationwide Council of Canadian Muslims have known as it discriminatory and a regulation that “causes second-class citizenship.”
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Federal cupboard ministers have confronted repeated questions in regards to the considerations from Quebec over the previous two days and strolling into his cupboard assembly on Tuesday, Trudeau stated he helps Elghawaby “100 per cent.”
“She has demonstrated, all through her years of labor, an … openness and a rigor that we want proper now,” he stated, talking in French.
“I perceive that coping with Islamophobia would require essential and typically tough conversations, however we want somebody who’s educated, who’s deeply grounded, and I do know she’s the best particular person.”
She and co-writer Bernie Farber, former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, had stated within the 2019 op-ed that “nearly all of Quebecers seem like swayed not by the rule of regulation, however by anti-Muslim sentiment. A ballot carried out by Léger Advertising earlier this yr discovered that 88 per cent of Quebecers who held adverse views of Islam supported (Invoice 21).”
In a tweet, Elghawaby clarified late final week that she does not believe Quebecers are Islamophobic. Nonetheless, for officers within the Quebec authorities, her response has fallen brief.
Right here’s what it’s worthwhile to know in regards to the outcry.
Why do Quebec officers need Elghawaby to resign?
Quebec’s minister liable for state secularism has described Elghawaby’s remarks in her 2019 op-ed as “abhorrent” — and her subsequent clarification, he stated, was “unacceptable.”
“She should resign, and if she doesn’t, the federal government should take away her instantly,” Jean-François Roberge stated in a press release on Monday.
The op-ed in query was written in reference to a Léger ballot, which was revealed within the Montreal Gazette in 2019. The ballot steered that among the many Quebecers who’ve adverse emotions about Islam, 88 per cent supported Invoice 21’s push to ban spiritual symbols for public faculty academics.
It additionally steered that 28 per cent of these polled had a constructive view of Islam, whereas 60 per cent had constructive views of Catholicism.
The ballot was revealed within the Montreal Gazette beneath the headline “A brand new ballot reveals help for Invoice 21 is constructed on anti-Islam sentiment” — and Elghawaby cited that in her column in regards to the controversial laws not lengthy afterward.
“Sadly, nearly all of Quebecers seem like swayed not by the rule of regulation, however by anti-Muslim sentiment,” she and her co-author, Farber, wrote on the time.
“A ballot carried out by Léger Advertising earlier this yr discovered that 88 per cent of Quebecers who held adverse views of Islam supported the ban.”
Since her appointment, the op-ed has resurfaced and sparked requires Elghawaby’s resignation from supporters of Invoice 21 in Quebec. The day after her appointment, Elghawaby issued a series of tweets clarifying her previous remarks.
“I look to unify all Canadians throughout the nation to battle Islamophobia,” she stated on Jan. 27.
“I don’t imagine that Quebecers are islamophobic; my previous feedback had been in reference to a ballot on Invoice 21. I’ll work with companions from all provinces and areas to ensure we tackle racism head on.”
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Nonetheless, Roberge has doubled down on his name for her resignation, and former NDP chief Tom Mulcair penned a column within the Montreal Gazette on Tuesday arguing that “it was fallacious of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call Amira Elghawaby as Canada’s first particular consultant on combating Islamophobia.”
“Trudeau says she’s there to battle prejudice and construct bridges. She isn’t able to try this and it’s not due to haters, it’s due to what she stated,” Mulcair wrote.
“When your job is preventing prejudice and also you’ve made statements previously that sound like a mirrored image of your individual prejudice, you withdraw them and, ideally, apologize. You don’t dig in, or attempt to clarify them away.”
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez stated on Tuesday he was “deeply damage” by Elghawaby’s column and stated on Tuesday that he had requested for a gathering along with her to debate them.
Bloc Quebecois Chief Yves-Francois Blanchet introduced a deliberate assembly with Elghawaby for Feb. 1, after telling reporters her remarks had been “extra divisive than unifying.”
Backlash is ‘disappointing,’ advocate says
When Elghawaby’s appointment was introduced, Stephen Brown, the CEO of the Nationwide Council of Canadian Muslims, stated he “anticipated some pushback.”
“However the degree of pushback and vitriol — It’s stunning and disappointing,” he stated.
“I believe it’s very onerous for anyone to imagine that she might actually be motivated by some deep-seated hatred of Quebecers.”
Had the federal government appointed somebody who was supportive of Quebec’s regulation, Brown says that particular person then “would have zero credibility.”
“They might instantly be denounced by the overwhelming majority of Muslims within the nation,” he stated.
In the meantime, Brown says actual points impacting Muslim Canadians are falling beneath the radar, together with continued worries about rising hate crimes on this nation.
Quebec’s relationship with faith is traditionally fraught.
The Catholic Church had a good grip on the province within the mid-Twentieth century — a actuality that finally evoked an equally sturdy rejection within the province of faith’s function in public life. The province embraced its personal model of France’s Laïcité mannequin, or its coverage of official secularism, which is “fairly completely different” culturally than what exists in the remainder of Canada, in keeping with one Quebec-based human rights lawyer.
“They’ve created a kind of new state framework … that’s making an attempt to cleanse from the state equipment, if you’ll, any suggestion of spiritual views,” stated Pearl Eliadis, who can also be a professor at McGill college.
Because the Quebec authorities defends Invoice 21 as a bid to guard this Laïcité precept, the Superior Courtroom of Quebec has raised considerations about its influence on spiritual communities.
In his 2021 determination, Superior Courtroom Justice Marc-André Blanchard stated Invoice 21 has “severe and adverse” impacts on individuals who put on spiritual symbols however is basically authorized and doesn’t violate the Structure.
Blanchard acknowledged that the regulation has “merciless” and “dehumanizing” penalties for sure folks, a lot of whom would not be capable of hunt down new jobs within the public service with out compromising their beliefs.
“I’m not unsympathetic to the concept folks don’t wish to see individuals who may doubtlessly proselytize … (however) we’ve got no proof that these persons are doing the sorts of issues that the secularists in Quebec are anxious about,” Eliadis stated.
“If we’re going to be proscribing elementary rights, I believe it must be evidence-based.”
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To deduce from the 88 per cent statistic alone that the “majority” of Quebeckers had been swayed by anti-Muslim sentiment is “a mistake,” Eliadis stated. The 88 per cent in query referred to the Quebecers within the survey who already had adverse views of Islam and in addition reported supporting the regulation.
However, Eliadis added, “she has clarified that she isn’t saying nearly all of Quebeckers maintain these views.”
“In order that assertion has now been made … I believe we have to transfer on from that and take her in good religion, if you’ll,” she stated.
“I want folks would take a breath and provides her an opportunity to do her work, and never assume that ‘Quebec bashing’ was essentially what was concerned … all of us make errors.”
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