Trudeau calls out federal agencies during national summit on Islamophobia

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told anational summit on Islamophobia today thatgovernment agenciesneed to do more to help end the problem.

MPs voted unanimously in favour of a motion calling for a national summit on Islamophobia in June, following the attack in London, Ont., that killed four members of a Muslim family as they were out for an evening walk.

In his opening remarks, Trudeau called on the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and federal security agencies to stop practices that "target" Muslims.

"Institutions should support people, not target them," he said.

The CRA has been accused by civil liberty organizationsof unfairly targeting Muslim charities with audits based on flimsy pretexts.

Sources tell CBC that National Revenue MinisterDiane Lebouthillierhas promised tohave the taxpayers' ombudsman conduct a review of the CRA to address concerns about how the tax system has been treating Muslim charities.

Lebouthillier also said the government will ensure the CRA's advisory committee on the charitable sector, which guides all departmental policy, will have a representative from the Muslim community.

WATCH |Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: "There is no place in Canada for Islamophobia."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: "There is no place in Canada for Islamophobia."

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Duration 0:49

Trudeau takes part in a national summit against Islamophobia with community leaders and cabinet ministers.

During his remarks, Trudeau said Canadians must fight for a Canada "where we celebrate diversity, where we stand together."

"That's the promise our country must work hard to live up to, because too many times and for too many people that promise has been broken," he said, pointing to the attackinLondon and a more recent incident in Hamilton, Ont., which saw a mother and daughterthreatened.

Trudeau said he met with the mother and daughterin Hamilton earlier this week.

CEOof the National Council of Canadian Muslims(NCCM) Mustafa Farooq said he wants to seeall levels of government follow uptoday's summit withconcrete action.

"The reality is we cannot just keep adding onto a list of horrifying things that have happened," he said, citingthe recent spike in hatecrimes.

Earlier this week, Farooq and the NCCMreleased 60 policy recommendations to combat hate and racism across the country.

The recommendationsinclude Criminal Code amendments to better deal with hate crimes, a review of school programmingand a national fund for victims of Islamophobia.

'This is about survival'

Farooq said he hopes the government will commit to these recommendations and follow up with timelines to achieve them.

"This is not about politics or an election," he said. "For our community, this is about survival."

Azeezah Kanji, a legal scholar and director of programming at the Noor Cultural Centre in Toronto, said she is not optimistic about today's event.

"We'll have to see what comes out of the summit, but I would not besurprised if it's just more of the same superficial gestures andoptics that we have seen from this government time and time again," she said.

Just before midnight, the government issued a list of commitments which include:

• Engagingwith Muslim communities on the government's next anti-racism action plan,
• Lookingat adjusting some programslike the security infrastructure program for effectiveness and to be more, responsive to community needs.
• Improvingdigital literacy and tackling misinformation.

They also announced funding for eight projects,that address Islamophobia, including fighting back against online hate.

Aymen Derbali, who was shot seven times during the Quebec mosque shooting in 2017, said the government should focus on addressing Islamophobia on social media.

"Hate crimes are spread throughout social media," he told RobynBresnahanon CBC Radio's The Current.

Derbali said it's particularly important to educateyoung people about how hate can be spread through social media, pointing out that the man who shot him was only 27at the time.

"We need to talk to them about how they could be able to distinguish between freedom of speech and hate comments," he said.

Questions about who was invited

Kanji questioned the choice of speakers addressingthe summit, saying key experts on systemic Islamophobia were left out.

"The organizations, lawyers and academics who have been doing the most sustained work on state-sponsored Islamophobia are precisely those people who have been excluded from speaking," she said.

The summit was held virtually andwas mostly closed to the public a measure to ensure the safety of those participating, the government said.

NDP says government should have acted sooner

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday that while the summit was a good idea,the Liberals have beenslow to act against therise inIslamophobia and other racist ideologies.

"There are a number of solutions that we have known about for years, and, sadly, Mr. Trudeau has not responded, has not taken action," he said.

Singh said the Liberals should put more effort into tackling online hate and give more resources to police andsecurity agenciesto dismantle white supremacist groups.

In February, a month after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced that a number of "ideologically motivated violent extremist groups" including the Proud Boys were being added to Canada's list of terrorist organizations.

But a recent report suggests those efforts haven't prevented groups like the Proud Boysfrom operating openly online.

Controversy kicks off antisemitism summit

The same day that MPs voted to hold a summit on Islamophobia, the government announced it would also hostasummit on antisemitism, which was held Wednesday.

In a media statement earlier this month, Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Youth Bardish Chagger said she invited various cabinet ministers and members of Parliament to join the discussion on antisemitism.

But opposition leaders said they didn't receive invitations to the antisemitism summituntil the very last minute.

Green Party leader Annamie Paul tweeted Tuesday evening that she hadn't received an invitation, despite beingthe only federal leader who is Jewish.

Paul later tweeted earlyWednesday afternoonthat she had received an invitation to observe the summitonly hours before the event was set to start. She said she hadwanted to addressthe summit.

Conservative leader Erin O'Toole's office said he wasn't initially invited to Wednesday's summit, or to the one held todayon Islamophobia, despite asking the government for an opportunity to speak.

O'Toole's officesaid a late invite to the antisemitism summitcame Tuesday night.

"Mr. O'Toole received an invitation at 7:15 pm last evening to watch the summit but despite repeated requests from stakeholders and our office, we are not part of the event," said spokesperson Josie Sabatino.

A member of O'Toole's office told CBC on background that the party's critic for diversity and inclusion would attendthe entire antisemitismsummit.

WATCH |NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his critic was invited to the antisemitism summit

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his critic was invited to the antisemitism summit.

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Singh says the invitation to the national antisemitism summit launched by the federal government was extended to his party's critic.

The NDPsent its critic, Lindsay Mathyssen, to attend the antisemitism summit. During his press conference on Wednesday, Singh said he was looking forward to getting feedback from Mathyssen.

"We know hate is very much like a fire ... it's not isolated, it will spread, it will consume everyone. So we've all got a collective responsibility to listen to people impacted," Singh told a press conference on Wednesday.

Opposition leaderswereinvited to the summit on Islamophobia, saidChagger's office.

Wednesday's summit coincided with Blair announcing the government will spend more than $6 million on 150 projectsto support communities at risk of hate-motivated crime.

Thesecurity infrastructure programallows community centres, educational institutions and places of worship to apply for funding to cover doors, windows, cameras, alarm systems, fencing, lighting, minor renovations to enhance security, and basic training for staff to respond tohate-motivated crime.

The nextcall for applications will be launched on July 28.