Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for his question.

First, I just want to provide the committee with a definition of “Islamophobia”, just so we're all clear before I get to the answer.

Islamophobia is racism, stereotypes, prejudice, fear or acts of hostility directed towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general. In addition to individual acts of intolerance and racial profiling, Islamophobia can lead to viewing and treating Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level.

This offers me a bit of a way into the answer here.

It's very clear that when the shooter in Quebec City entered the mosque, he had a very clear intention to kill as many Muslims as he could. Given that he had been consuming harmful, dangerous narratives about Muslims for some time, he was reacting to what he perceived as Canada being welcoming of Muslims. Based on these very dangerous ideas about the threat, as per the definition, that Muslims posed to him, his family and his community, he decided to act out.

That terrorized the community. It terrorized Quebec Muslims. It terrorized Muslims across Canada, as well as fellow Canadians, who were absolutely and rightfully shocked by what happened.

Similarly, in the London attack, the terrorist who went and rammed his truck into a family simply because they were Muslim and he had consumed dangerous narratives also terrorized.

It is very important that the justice system recognizes when there is an act that is terrorist, because it sends a very strong message that not only were they targeted as individuals, as Canadians and part of our society, but they were specifically targeted with an ideological motive in place. The ideological motive is indeed to send a message about the place of Muslims in this country and whether or not they belong. It was a message that was very painful for many, and we continue to carry it.

Thank you.

Transcript

Discussions (0)