Thank you so much for inviting me to speak today.

As mentioned, my name is Samya Hasan. I'm the executive director for an organization called the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians.

I'm joining you this morning from the traditional indigenous territories of the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee and the territories of the Mississauga, also known as Tsi Tkaronto.

Today is a particularly heavy day, as my colleague Stephen has mentioned. It is the three-year anniversary of the London family terrorist attack, and I'm sure the heaviness of today will be felt throughout the day as others like me make their statements.

I grew up in Toronto during the aftermath of 9/11 in some of Toronto's most diverse neighbourhoods. Being in public schools, I had internalized the news that most Muslim communities were going to be portrayed as the bad guys. I spent my entire school life on the defensive, defending my choice to wear a hijab, defending my family against stereotypes or defending my communities against attacks. What I didn't foresee at that time was that the hateful rhetoric would eventually turn into violence and fatalities.

Our organization is a social justice organization that has been doing anti-hate work and anti-racism work for over three decades. We have been actively engaged in anti-Islamophobia work, particularly over the last five years, because we have seen the exponential increase in Islamophobia during this time.

There are three main points that I want to highlight today, based on the work we have done as an organization. First is the importance of educating young people on anti-Islamophobia, using an anti-oppression lens. Second is protecting our communities from online forms of Islamophobia. Third is incorporating anti-Palestinian racism as part of the strategy to combat Islamophobia.

Over the last five years, we've worked with various different school boards, in Ontario particularly, to create anti-Islamophobia strategies for entire boards in partnership with the NCCM, the National Council of Canadian Muslims. We need all provinces in Canada to mandate such strategies for all school boards across the country. Teaching children to be empathetic is a lot more impactful than teaching adults to unlearn the hate and bias that they've been exposed to all their lives.

I understand that there are jurisdictional considerations over education; however, we know that when the federal government wants the provinces to do something, they have the mechanisms, the pressures and the incentives to make it happen. We need the federal government to commit to this, to encourage and work with all provincial governments to mandate the incorporation of identity-affirming, anti-Islamophobia education for all publicly funded schools in Canada.

Second, we know that the recently introduced online harms bill is welcome legislation, especially for organizations that have been doing anti-hate work and online hate work for a very long time. We know that it's welcome in many Muslim communities as well; however, we want to ensure that there are rigorous oversight measures in place that will prevent racialized and Muslim communities from being unfairly criminalized. We know all too well from the post-9/11 experience what happens when Muslim, Black and brown bodies are over-policed. We want to be convinced that this online harms bill will not be abused to continue the oppression of our communities.

Finally, I know that the third point will come up quite often through the course of this hearing. Over the last eight months, we have seen an exponential increase in Islamophobia and hate crimes towards Muslim communities across the country. We have particularly witnessed visibly Muslim women being exceptionally vulnerable to hateful rhetoric, whether it's online or whether it's in real life.

We have also witnessed an interconnectedness of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism in Canada and across the world. We have seen Muslim communities being targeted with Islamophobia because they support the Palestinian people and Palestinian human rights. We can't hide from this fact any longer, and this government needed to address this yesterday. There are no parts of our anti-racism strategy or anti-hate strategies that address anti-Palestinian racism. These strategies must name, define and address anti-Palestinian racism in Canada. We must stop the further dehumanization of Palestinians caused by ignoring their pleas for protection from abuse, hate and violence.

Muslim communities and allies are outraged and broken by the very graphically broadcast genocide happening in front of our eyes. Protests against this genocide have been widely cited as overwhelmingly peaceful, except for a few times when they've been instigated by police or counterprotests.

To our huge disappointment, we've seen the majority of politicians either mis-characterize or wrongfully smear the legitimate advocacy for Palestinians, or stay deafeningly silent. As recently as last week, we saw the shocking silence of our own Prime Minister when newcomers and immigrants were blamed, without evidence, for criminal activities.

If we're going to combat Islamophobia in all its ugly forms, it's imperative for this government to walk the talk first. Our politicians have alienated Muslim communities at great lengths.

I'll end with my final concluding thought with regard to education: I think our politicians also need the same mandatory education as our young people on anti-Islamophobia.

Thank you so much.