Ontario PC leader says he’ll support anti-Islamophobia motion
Patrick Brown says Islamophobia has no place in Ontario, hostility towards Muslims is ‘real’
By Muriel Draaisma
CBC News | February 21, 2017
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown says he will support an anti-Islamophobia motion that a Liberal MPP plans to introduce in the provincial legislature on Thursday.
Brown said Tuesday that Islamophobia has no place in Ontario.
“Whether it’s hate against any faith, it’s wrong. I will always stand in opposition to any form of hate,” Brown told reporters at Queen’s Park.
He said he is going to encourage members of the Ontario PC caucus to support the motion as well. The caucus is scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
“I think it’s pretty straightforward to condemn any form of hate. In terms of Islamophobia, it is real,” Brown said.
Liberal MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers, who represents Ottawa-Vanier, has said she will introduce a motion this week calling on the legislature to condemn all forms of Islamophobia.
Des Rosiers sent a letter to other MPPs on Friday asking if they will support her motion.
Amira Elghawaby, communications director for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, told CBC Toronto that the council is pleased that Brown will support the Ontario motion.
“I welcome his support and I am happy to say I am not surprised. He has shown a willingness to address these issues head on,” she said in an interview from Ottawa.
“It’s very important that our political leaders do show the way forward as we confront the various forms of hate that are out there. Islamophobia is a growing concern in Canada.”
Elghawaby noted that the Quebec legislature passed a similar motion in October 2015, after an incident in Montreal in which a pregnant Muslim woman was approached by a group of young people who knocked her to the ground and removed her veil.
The Quebec motion passed unanimously.
She said such motions are symbolic but important because Muslim communities are feeling targeted….