OTTAWA — A Senate committee says anti-Muslim hate needs to be met with the creation of new criminal offences, more education and less bias in federal tax audits.
A report tabled on Thursdayby the upper chamber's human-rights committee says Islamophobia is being spread online and over the airwaves, and argues this is contributing to a rise in documented hate crimes against Muslims.
"Islamophobia is an acute threat to Canadian Muslims and urgent action is needed," said committee chair Sen. Salma Ataullahjan.
"We must commit to building a more inclusive country and to better promoting our Muslim relatives and friends, neighbours and colleagues," she said at a press conference on Parliament Hill.
Ataullahjan said she and her colleagues heard from Muslimcommunities across the country that have experienced incidents that seem to violate criminal laws but were not prosecuted.
"The women in Edmonton — most of us senators were tearing (up) when they shared their stories with us, about how regularly their hijabs are pulled, they have coffee thrown at them and they're spat on. And there have been more violent incidents."
The report calls for more laws on the books, but doesn't get into specifics, and Sen. Mobina Jaffer said "it's a very challenging question" to sort out what gaps exist.
"Even what's in the Criminal Code is not being enforced," she told reporters.
"But what we heard from communities across the country (is) that there should be specific Islamophobia or antisemitism crimes, that specifically deal with the issues that the Muslim or the Jewish communities are dealing with."
The senators say they'd also like to see ramped-up efforts to weed out bias within the Canada Revenue Agency, following audits of Muslim charities that advocates argued were excessive.
The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency said earlier this year that it was probing the revenue agency in response to allegations that a CRA division tasked with preventing terrorism financing had been unfairly targeting the charities.
Ataullahjan also said the government's special representative on combating Islamophobia needs a budget beyond the $5.6 million over five years that was allocated in January, saying there is a clear need for better public education.
The committee said it wants federal human-rights bodies to be able to handle complaints of online hate. It added that a federal hotline should be established so people can report hate-motivated crimes.
To do that, Ataullahjan said, the public needs better education, as well as media that do not embolden prejudicial attitudes.
"At its core, Islamophobia is rooted in damaging stereotypes and misinformation about Muslims, which often stem from mischaracterization of religious Islamic concepts," Ataullahjan said.
The committee noted that hate crimes against various groups are on the rise, with Statistics Canada reporting a 71 per cent increase in police-reported crimes targeting Muslims in 2021 compared to the year before.
But the senators stressed that Islamophobia is nothing new in Canada — and it's something they've experienced personally.
Jaffer said she was sworn in as Canada's first Muslim senator just a week after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which were followed by a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment.
"When my husband and I got on the airplane to Vancouver from my swearing-in ceremony in Ottawa, we were subjected to an intense, random inspection," she told reporters.
"My husband and I both are called outside, and my husband and I both had to completely undress. That was what I meant by intense, and I don't wish that on anybody," she added.
"Many more so-called random inspections followed every time I flew. And I'm a senator, a parliamentarian. If that happens to me, what do you think life is like for ordinary Muslims?"
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2023.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
