Out of all G7 countries, Canada has the highest number of Muslims killed in hate crimes

Out of all G7 countries, Canada has had the highest number of Muslims killed by hate crimes, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has been using aggressive surveillance tactics to police Canadian Muslims.

Research by the National Council of Canadian Muslims found that: “CSIS treats mosques as sites of radicalization and incubators of extremism in order to legitimize its intensive policing and infiltration. CSIS monitors who enters and exits them, and members, especially imams, are subject to interrogation and forced to provide intelligence on their congregations. We found there is a persistent deployment of CSIS operatives at mosques.”

Informed by Islamophobic tropes, CSIS harasses Muslim Canadians by infiltrating spaces of faith, education, living and work.

The appointment of Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s first special representative on combating Islamophobia, led to a political uproar about the representative’s criticism of a Quebec law that prevents public servants from wearing hijabs, turbans, yarmulkes, crosses.

“The majority of Quebecers appear to be swayed not by the rule of law, but by anti-Muslim sentiment,” Elghawaby had co-written in 2019 with Bernie Farber, the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

The column referenced a poll by Léger Markering, which found that only 28 percent of people in Quebec had a positive view of Islam, and among those who held negative views of the religion, 88 percent supported the ban on religious symbols for public school teachers.

On Wednesday, Elghawaby apologized for writing about the anti-Islam sentiment prevelant in Quebec, before meeting with Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet.

"I would like to say that I am extremely sorry for the way that my words have carried, how I have hurt the people of Quebec, and this is what I am going to express to Mr. Blanchet," she said.

Not only did Blanchet reject Elghawaby’s apology, but he also said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should get rid of the representative’s position altogether.

What does this really say about the Quebec leader’s view on acknowledging and addressing anti-Muslim and Islamophobic violence then?