Recent Coverage
Ottawa police alert Muslim women after reports of verbal abuse
Woman told to go back to her own country while voting, another called terrorist in downtown Ottawa
CBC News | October 16, 2015
Ottawa police are asking Muslims to report "all forms of abuse" after three Muslim women reported being verbally harassed by strangers while wearing a head scarf, including one incident at a polling station.
Staff Sgt. David M. Zackrias, head of the diversity and race relations section, told CBC News that leaders in the Muslim community passed along concerns to police.
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In one case, a woman was told to go back to her own country ...
Harper’s proposed ban on niqab in civil service ricochets through campaign
Murray Brewster | The Canadian Press
October 7, 2015
OTTAWA – Stephen Harper’s proposed ban on the wearing of niqabs by anyone dealing with — or working for — the federal government ricocheted down the campaign trail Wednesday, drawing condemnation from opponents, premiers and Muslim groups.
He told CBC’s Power and Politics on Tuesday that, a re-elected Conservative government would look at legislation to nix niqabs in the public service — echoing similar comments last week in the French-language debate hosted by network TVA.
Harper then went further, ...
Muslim convert attacked while wearing niqab in Toronto
Sean Fine, Justice Writer | Globe and Mail
October 4, 2015
Her roots in Canada stretch back through her francophone mother to the 1600s. Last week, wearing her Islamic face veil – the niqab, which has become a central issue in the federal election – she says she was trying to enter Shoppers Drug Mart at Toronto’s Fairview Mall when a man carrying a liquor-store bag blocked her path and then drove his elbow hard into her shoulder, in front of her two daughters, ages nine and four.
“It hurt, yo,” Safira Merriman, 30, said in a Facebook post describing the ...
Conservatives highlight cultural identity issues ahead of French debate
Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press | CTV News
October 2, 2015
OTTAWA - Campaigning Conservatives continued to press the hot buttons Friday, highlighting what they call "barbaric cultural practices" and Muslim facial coverings amid evidence the tight, three-way election race may be starting to break loose.
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The heated campaign debate over "values" and religious accommodation appears to have spurred more than just anti-Islamic rhetoric in Quebec.
A pair of teens tore the headscarf from a pregnant woman in Montreal this week, causing her to fall on the ...
Veil debate becomes big issue in Canada election
Veil debate becomes big issue in Canada election
By John Barber | The Guardian
October 1, 2015
Zunera Ishaq describes her choice to wear a veil in public as a “trivial and minor issue”.
But for 35 million Canadians, this woman’s stubborn insistence on her right to conceal her face has become a central issue in the ongoing election campaign, giving a late boost to a Conservative government that had previously seemed doomed to defeat.
A 29-year-old mother and teacher who was accepted as an immigrant to Canada in 2008, Ishaq first came to attention when ...
Muslim groups working hard to get out the vote in their community
By: Noor Javed News Reporter
Toronto Star | September 18, 2015
Stephen Harper’s absence on the website for the Canadian-Muslim Vote is hard to miss.
In August, the grassroots organization working to increase voter turnout in the Muslim community sent invitations to all four federal party leaders asking them to send a video message to be posted on the website encouraging the community to engage in the political process.
“We are still awaiting a response from the Conservative Party of Canada,” says the message on the website for the non-profit and non-parti...
Niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies unlawful, as Ottawa loses appeal
Appeal Court rules so woman has chance to take oath and vote on Oct. 19
CBC News | September 15, 2015
The federal government has lost its appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down a ban on wearing niqabs at citizenship ceremonies.
Three justices on the Federal Court of Appeal, in a ruling from the bench, said they wanted to rule now so the woman at the centre of the case could take her citizenship oath and vote in the federal election on Oct. 19.
The case started with a lawsuit from Zunera Ishaq, a devout Muslim who moved to Ontario from Pakistan in ...
Second woman files human rights complaint in fight to have face covered during citizenship ceremon
By Douglas Quan
September 4, 2015 | National Post
A second Muslim woman is challenging a government policy that prohibits people from covering their faces while swearing the oath of citizenship.
In a complaint filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, Maiia Mykolayivna Zaafrane says she was discriminated against on the basis of religion when she was not allowed to participate in a citizenship ceremony because she refused to remove her niqab, a garment that covers her head and face, except her eyes.
The niqab ban became a major political flashpoint this ...
Courting ethnic vote fraught with pitfalls, but parties still do it
By Sherry Noik
Yahoo Canada Politics | August 18, 2015
In a multicultural country like Canada, the word minority can sometimes be a misnomer — particularly when minorities make up the majority in 33 of the 338 federal ridings up for grabs in the Oct. 19 election.
According to the government’s 2011 census figures, visible minorities account for 19.1 per cent of Canada’s total population; more than two-thirds of them (65.1 per cent) were born elsewhere and emigrated here.
In that same census, more than 200 different ethnic origins were reported, and 13 of ...
On terror rhetoric, Public Safety Minister ignores RCMP and his own advisors
By Anna Mehler Paperny | Senior Producer, Investigative Data Desk
July 29, 2015 | Global News
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney’s office ignored edits that would have toned down a counter-terror statement issued in January, according to a document obtained by Global News.
Instead, the statement, issued Jan. 26 in response to an ISIS audio file calling for attacks on Canada, used language Canadian law enforcement has called “inflammatory.”
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The National Council of Canadian Muslims has communicated its misgivings on terror terminology to the ...