Recent Coverage


Disney vacation turns to nightmare for Mississauga family

By: Nicholas Keung, Immigration reporter Toronto Star | March 3, 2015 A Mississauga family says a dream trip to Disney World in February turned into a nightmare after they were held by U.S. customs at Pearson airport, denied entry and paraded in public before returning home. Firas Al-Rawi, an emergency room doctor at Toronto General Hospital, said he booked the Family Day holiday trip in early December so his wife and children could join him at a professional conference in Orlando that week. The family had taken numerous trips to the United States by air and car ...

Read More


Muslim groups urge politicians to uphold Canada’s constitutional values

By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press February 27, 2015 OTTAWA - A Quebec judge's refusal to hear testimony from a woman in a hijab has become the latest flash point in an increasingly tense relationship between Canadian Muslims and their governments. Critics are accusing the Conservative government of fostering a combative attitude towards Islam that's reflected in legislation, party fundraising and public remarks by senior Tories, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But while none went so far as to suggest the Quebec judge's decision was a direct ...

Read More


Hijab-wearing woman should be allowed to testify, Harper spokesman says

Quebec Judge Eliana Marengo's refusal to hear case of woman wearing headscarf sparks widespread debate CBC News | February 27, 2015 Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't agree with a Quebec Court judge's controversial decision to refuse to hear a woman's case because she was wearing a hijab, a spokesman says. "If someone is not covering their face, we believe they should be allowed to testify," Harper spokesman Stephen Lecce said in a one-line statement. The comment comes following a CBC News report Thursday that Judge Eliana Marengo told a woman in a Montreal ...

Read More


End to the war of words

Shanifa Nasser, National Post | February 21, 2015 At a conference to combat radicalization held last week in Toronto, a prominent local imam called on the federal government to stop using language linking Islam to terror. “Lead by example, change the rhetoric, and stop saying these words. They hurt,” said Dr. Hamid Slimi, former chairman of the Canadian Council of Imams and current chairman of the Muslim seminary, the Canadian Centre for Deen Studies. The plea, met with overwhelming applause, referred specifically to remarks made by Prime Minister Stephen ...

Read More


Niqab appeal by Ottawa is questioned over motivation

By Andrew Foote, CBC News | February 13, 2015 Critics are questioning the motivation behind the federal government's decision to appeal a judge's ruling that allows women to wear a face-concealing niqab while taking the oath of citizenship. A Federal Court judge said last Friday that Zunera Ishaq, a Pakistani woman now living in Mississauga, did not have to remove her niqab when taking the oath of citizenship, ruling that the law only requires someone to sign a form saying they've taken the oath. . . . Amira Elghawaby, human rights coordinator at the National ...

Read More


Could feds’ anti-terror rhetoric hurt counter-terror strategies?

By Anna Mehler Paperny Global News | February 5, 2015 People who try to prevent radicalization of youth in Muslim communities say rhetoric around the federal Conservatives’ new anti-terror bill, and the way the Prime Minister presented it, makes their job harder. . . . Another comment by Harper that day — “It doesn’t matter what the age of the person is, or whether they’re in a basement, or whether they’re in a mosque or somewhere else” — prompted some high-profile Muslim organizations, including the National Council of Canadian Muslims, to ask ...

Read More


Muslim groups ‘troubled’ by Stephen Harper’s mosque remark

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair decries prime minister's comment as a form of Islamophobia By Laura Payton, CBC News February 2, 2015 Two national Muslim organizations say they are troubled that Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week drew a link between radicalization and mosques. Harper made the remark last Friday when he was answering a question about the Canadian government's new anti-terrorism legislation. The measures unveiled in Bill C-51 include criminalizing advocacy for or promotion of a terrorist act. Another measure lowers the threshold needed for police to ...

Read More


For policymakers, the language of terrorism is a moving target

By DYLAN ROBERTSON Ottawa Citizen | January 29, 2015 Following the terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper cranked up his rhetoric. “We will not be intimidated by jihadist terrorists,” said Harper during an appearance in a Vancouver suburb, adding that “the international jihadist movement has declared war” on Canada and its allies. Now, just a few weeks later, the term “jihad,” or “jihadi” has become a routine part of the government’s speaking notes. This vocabulary – along with terms such as “Islamist...

Read More


Canadian Muslim leaders condemn attack on France’s Charlie Hebdo

By Matthew Coutts | Daily Brew - Yahoo Canada News January 7, 2015 The 12 people killed in the Paris terrorist attack, including journalists, police and political cartoonists, are being mourned across Canada and the globe... Leaders in Canada’s Muslim community were also speaking out against the attack in France, and voicing concern that their peaceful religion could be hurt by to the barbaric action of extremists... And the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) said justice must be served immediately. “We are absolutely shocked and horrified by what ...

Read More


Ottawa residents react to tragedy in Paris

Joanne Schnurr | CTV News Ottawa January 7, 2015 Reaction to the tragedy in Paris has been swift and sympathetic on this side of the Atlantic. Residents in Ottawa gathered in the biting cold outside the French Embassy on Sussex Drive Wednesday evening to honor those killed. Ottawa has sadly shared in the pain of a terrorist attack. And so Canadians and Ottawa residents were quick to reach out to their French allies and open their hearts. Outside the French embassy on Sussex Drive, the French flag flies at half-mast, lowered in respect of those killed today. . . ...

Read More