Recent Coverage


Senate report stigmatizes muslims, says national group

Jim Bronskill | Canadian Press July 9, 2015 OTTAWA - A national Muslim organization says it is profoundly disappointed with a Senate committee report that urges greater scrutiny of imams and barring radical thinkers from Canada. The National Council of Canadian Muslims says the Senate security and defence committee report released this week does not offer effective solutions to the challenge of violent extremism and risks further alienating Muslim communities. The report said the federal government should ban radical ideologues from giving speeches in Canada, ...

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Harper government won’t consider controversial suggestion to certify imams

By Vassy Kapelos | Global News July 9, 2015 OTTAWA – A controversial suggestion to look at certifying Muslim religious leaders was rejected by the Harper government today, according to a spokesperson for the Minister of Public Safety. “The recommendation in question is not something our Government is considering,” Jeremy Laurin said in an email. The recommendation – that “the federal government work with the provinces and the Muslim communities to investigate the options that are available for the training and certification of imams in Canada” – was ...

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Senate committee on terrorism suggests certifying imams

By STEVEN CHASE The Globe and Mail | July 8, 2015 A Senate committee is calling for Canada to go much further in cracking down on radicalism and terrorism, including training and certifying the credentials of Muslim imams as a means of stamping out “extreme ideas.” The controversial focus on religious leaders is part of a report from the Senate committee on national security and defence that represents the view of its Conservative majority. The report, however, does not have the support of Liberal members of the committee. The training and certification idea ...

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Where health-care draws the line on meeting multicultural needs

By Tom Blackwell July 3, 2015 | National Post As the adolescent girl underwent gynecological surgery at a western Canadian hospital, a doctor stood by to perform an unusual function. The physician was there, according to a source familiar with the incident, to sign a certificate verifying she remained a virgin — and was still marriageable in her immigrant community. It was a stark example of an increasing preoccupation for Canada’s health-care system: accommodating the sometimes unorthodox needs of ethnic and religious minorities in an ever-more multicultu...

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PM’s Ramadan dinner shows the importance of the Muslim voting bloc

New research shows that a record half-million Canadian Muslims are now eligible to cast a ballot. Stephanie Levitz | Toronto Star (CP) June 28, 2015 OTTAWA — Twenty-one Toronto-area imams used a Friday sermon this spring for a singular message: the need for Muslims to vote in the federal election this fall. The decision to make the unprecedented political pitch — imams generally shy away from politics — was spurred by new research showing a record half-million Muslims are now eligible to cast a ballot. So the prime minister’s decision last week to host ...

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Canadian Muslim leaders wary of Stephen Harper’s Ramadan meal motives

By Amanda Connolly | Jun 24, 2015 | iPolitics.ca The heads of two Canadian Muslim groups say they will be watching carefully to see whether the gesture offered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a Ramadan iftar on Monday will result in a change in how the government talks about Muslims. Although U.S. President Barack Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron have hosted their own iftars for years, Monday’s meal marked the first time Harper welcomed 40 members of the Muslim community into 24 Sussex to break their Ramadan fasts alongside members of his ...

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Conservative bill would ban niqabs during citizenship ceremony

By: Debra Black, Immigration Reporter Toronto Star | June 19, 2015 Ottawa has introduced new legislation that requires all Canadian citizenship applicants to show their face while taking the oath of citizenship. The Oath of Citizenship Act, which was introduced Friday, is designed to make sure candidates are seen and heard reciting the oath of citizenship during ceremonies. The act would require all applicants to swear or affirm the oath of citizenship publicly and openly and in a way that others can verify both “aloud and with face uncovered.” The new act is ...

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Suspicion of Muslims real danger, activist says

Argues terrorist assumptions only add to extremism's lure By: Carol Sanders June 18, 2015 | Winnipeg Free Press The biggest threat to Canadians isn't a young man in Charleswood drawn to violent extremism, but a government trying to paint Muslims as the enemy, says one leader of Winnipeg's Islamic community. "We've had so much thrown our way by this government," said Shahina Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association. The latest comments she cites are from Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, who insinuated women who wear a ...

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Muslims only religious group to see increase in hate crimes: StatsCan

By Amanda Connolly | Jun 9, 2015 iPolitics Canadian Muslims were the only religious group that experienced an increase in hate crimes in 2013 according to new numbers released Tuesday by Statistics Canada — and community leaders say things have only gotten worse over the past year with the rise of ISIS and toxic political rhetoric. The 2013 report on police-reported hate crimes shows that overall, there was a 17 per cent drop in the number of hate crimes reported to police in Canada compared to during 2012: from 1,414 to 1,167. Just over half of those incidents ...

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Canadian Muslim group has launched a hate tracking website

By Arthur White | VICE News June 9, 2015 A Canadian Muslim advocacy group has launched a website to track Islamophobic vandalism, hijab pulling and similar forms of bigotry, as recent statistics show an uptick in hate crimes against Muslims between 2012 and 2013. Released Tuesday by Statistics Canada, the data revealed a 17 percent overall plunge in hate crimes reported to police during the one year period. But concerns remain for a number of groups who are still disproportionately targeted, including Muslims, blacks, and Jews, and for sexual minorities, who are ...

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