Canada appoints first anti-Islamophobia adviser

MONTREAL: Canada on Thursday appointed its first special representative on combating Islamophobia, a position created following several recent attacks on Muslims in the country. Journalist and activist Amira Elghawaby will fill the post to “serve as a champion, advisor, expert and representative to support and enhance the federal government’s efforts in the fight against Islamophobia, systemic racism, racial discrimination and religious intolerance,” a statement by the prime minister’s office said.

An active human rights campaigner, Elghawaby is the communications head for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and a columnist for the Toronto Star newspaper, having previously worked for more than a decade at public broadcaster CBC. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Elghawaby’s appointment as “an important step in our fight against Islamophobia and hatred in all its forms.”

“Diversity truly is one of Canada’s greatest strengths, but for many Muslims, Islamophobia is all too familiar,” he added. Over the past few years, a series of deadly attacks have targeted Canada’s Muslim community. In June 2021, four members of a Muslim family were killed when a man ran them over with his truck in London, Ontario.

Four years earlier, six Muslims died and five were injured in an attack on a Quebec City mosque. In a series of tweets Thursday, Elghawaby listed the names of those killed in the recent attacks, adding: “We must never forget.” The creation of the new job had been recommended by a national summit on Islamophobia organized by the federal government in June 2021 in response to the attacks.