(Canadian Press) Prosecutors are seeking a new trial for a man who attacked uniformed personnel at a Toronto military centre three years ago, arguing he should be considered a terrorist even though he acted alone and mental illness rendered him not criminally […]
(CBC) Quebec’s federation of school boards (FCSQ) says it intends on obeying the province’s new secularism law when classes resume in September. The move comes after the province’s largest school board, the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM), said it would not enforce the […]
(CBC) An Ontario police force will launch a recruiting campaign targeting Quebec residents affected by the province’s new law on religious symbols. The Peel Regional Police, which covers territory including the cities of Mississauga and Brampton, will conduct a campaign in Quebec after a motion was passed unanimously […]
(Global News) Two men have been arrested in the aftermath of a National Citizens Alliance rally and counter-protest on Saturday in Halifax’s Grand Parade. Four supporters of the NCA — a far-right political party registered with Elections Canada — booked the downtown […]
(Global News) A political group whose core policy planks feature a rejection of Canada’s multiculturalism framework, a belief that political correctness threatens Canada’s identity and culture, and whose website calls for the ban of “political-Islam” are set to host a rally in […]
(CBC) Lisa Starr’s job is to find internships for prospective teachers. Her task for next fall just got more complicated, now that Quebec’s ban on religious symbols has been passed into law. “I think there’s a lot of confusion and a lot of […]
(CBC) The Commission Scolaire de Montréal voted unanimously Wednesday to delay the application of Quebec’s religious symbols law until a proper consultation process with its internal groups can be carried out. The consultations could last until the fall of 2020, the CSDM said […]
(Toronto Sun) On Sunday night after a marathon session, Quebec legislators voted 73-35 to bring into law Premier François Legault’s Bill 21 that bans some public servants from wearing religious symbols. Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government, which also had the backing […]
(CBC) Conservative MP Michael Cooper made comments deriding “goat herder cultures” during a discussion about Islam’s compatibility with Canadian democracy when he was a law student at the University of Alberta a decade ago, according to two lawyers who have come forward […]
(CBC) Quebec Premier François Legault had a blunt message Tuesday for minorities worried about his government’s new religious symbols law: the legislation, he said, “could have gone further.” The law, which was passed late Sunday, bars civil servants in positions of authority — including public school teachers, […]
(AP) A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Canadian man to 26 years in U.S. prison for supporting a group of jihadists who committed a 2009 suicide attack that killed five American soldiers in Iraq. The sentence came over the objections of […]
(CBC) Quebec’s new law on religious symbols has been on the books for less than 24 hours, but already opposition is being mounted on several fronts, both in the courts and on the streets. The law was rammed through the legislature late Sunday […]
(CBC) Quebec’s opposition is warning last-minute changes to the Coalition Avenir Québec’s religious symbols law open the door to the establishment of “secularism police.” In the final hours before Bill 21 was passed late Sunday, the CAQ introduced several amendments, including provisions to ensure the […]
(CBC) Quebec’s majority government has pushed through a controversial piece of legislation that will bar public-school teachers, government lawyers, judges and police officers from wearing religious symbols while at work. The bill, introduced by the Coalition Avenir Québec government, passed after a marathon weekend of deliberations […]
(CBC) After a 19-hour marathon session, members of Quebec’s National Assembly have passed legislation that would allow the government to cancel roughly 16,000 immigration applications, some from people who have waited in limbo for years as their files languished in the old […]
(CBC) Opposition parties are accusing Quebec’s Legault government of trying to run the National Assembly like a business, as they attempt to extend the debate of its two flagship Bills 9 and 21. Members of the National Assembly are sitting this weekend […]
(CBC) Quebec Premier François Legault says there’s a risk of upsetting “social cohesion” in the province if the debate over religious symbols is allowed to linger any longer. Legault will invoke closure to pass his government’s controversial secularism and immigration bills, putting an end […]
(CBC) A controversial statement by Conservative MP Michael Cooper before the Commons justice committee — in which he named the New Zealand mosque shooter and recited passages from his manifesto — will be officially struck from the record. After a testy exchange, […]
(CBC) The Coalition Avenir Québec government will invoke closure this weekend to force passage of two controversial pieces of legislation — one that reforms the province’s immigration system and another that bars civil servants in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols. The centre-right party […]
(Global News) A Toronto-area organization that was suspended by charities regulators and fined $550,000 over concerns it may have funded armed militants in Pakistan has been awarded a federal summer jobs grant. Although the Islamic Society of North America-Canada is serving a […]
(Toronto Sun) Last week’s Ontario Superior Court judgment exonerating two men for a dozen criminal charges related to the marketing of Islamic mortgages based on Shariah law went unreported in all Canadian newspapers and network TV other than the online pages of […]
(CBC) The Quebec government is offering a first concession to critics of its proposed law restricting religious symbols worn by some civil servants. Tuesday afternoon, Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette tabled the amendment which would define what a religious symbol is. The amendment seeks to define a religious symbol […]
(Toronto Sun) Two Muslim men — an activist turned Shariah mortgage seller and an Islamic cleric who sold his Islamic seal of approval on such mortgages — were acquitted on Friday of a dozen criminal charges by an Ontario Superior Court judge […]
(CBC) Several dozen people stood in the pouring rain outside Quebec’s National Assembly on Tuesday to tell the Coalition Avenir Québec that they will continue to fight against the party’s proposed ban on religious symbols in the civil service, even if Bill 21 is passed at […]
(CBC) More than four years after a Quebec court judge refused to hear the case of a woman because she was wearing a hijab, the Conseil de la magistrature finally held a disciplinary hearing into the judge’s conduct. In February 2015, Judge […]
(CBC) Two men who provided Shariah-compliant mortgages to Muslim homeowners in the GTA were acquitted of a dozen criminal charges in Ontario Superior Court Friday after a trial that began back in October 2018. Omar Kalair and Yusuf Panchbhaya were on trial […]
(Toronto Sun) We tend to place individuals and ideologies in neat, homogeneous compartments, when shades of grey better convey the reality. This seems to have happened in the controversy surrounding the tiff between Faisal Khan Suri, president of the Alberta Muslim Public […]
(Global News) The RCMP is looking into whether war crimes laws can be used to prosecute Canadians detained in Syria over their alleged involvement in the so-called Islamic State, Global News has learned. National security investigators are exploring not only whether terrorism […]
(CBC) The House of Commons justice committee in Ottawa has voted to strike controversial remarks from Conservative MP Michael Cooper from the record. Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault put forward the motion on Tuesday morning, calling Cooper’s comments “discriminatory, hurtful and disrespectful.” Over […]
(CBC) A Liberal MP wants Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to strip MP Michael Cooper of his role as deputy justice critic and toss him from the party caucus for berating a Muslim witness at a parliamentary committee last week. A second Liberal […]
(CBC) The Muslim man who was the target of an angry confrontation by Conservative MP Michael Cooper during a committee appearance says the punishment meted out by leader Andrew Scheer isn’t enough. “I think more needs to be done here,” Faisal Khan […]
(CBC) The secularism debate in Quebec has been going on for more than a decade, and much has been made of the importance of keeping religious symbols out of the workplace. A new documentary, The Trial 2.0, focuses on the impact of the 2013 […]
(CBC) Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has stripped MP Michael Cooper of his spot on the House of Commons justice committee as punishment for Cooper’s angry confrontation with a Muslim witness in hearings dedicated to online hate. Earlier this week, Cooper told Faisal […]
(CBC) A parliamentary committee exploring online hate descended into chaos this week after a Conservative MP told a Muslim witness he should be “ashamed” after he drew a link between “conservative commentators” and the online history of mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette. The […]
(Global News) The halal breakfast option is some combination of fruit and cereal with a muffin, toast and peanut butter, boiled eggs or French toast, depending on the day. That’s according to the Correctional Service of Canada’s national menu, but Jason Cain […]
(CBC) Over the weekend, police in Quebec City opened an investigation into a possible hate crime outside a suburban mosque, the same mosque where, in 2017, a white nationalist killed six people. The incident, which allegedly involved a man shouting racist comments […]
(Canadian Press) While most Canadians firmly back the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and strongly support the idea of diversity, a new poll suggests a third of Canadians would ban their elected officials from wearing religious symbols. A majority of Quebecers canvassed […]
(Global News) Stereotypes around religion, ethnicity and race can have damaging effects on people, yet some Canadians still believe these harmful tropes. A recent poll conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of Global News found that three in 10 Canadians believe […]
(CBC) High-ranking human rights monitors with the United Nations are concerned the Quebec government will violate fundamental freedoms if it moves ahead with legislation to limit where religious symbols can be worn. Three UN legal experts, known as rapporteurs, signed and sent […]
(Global News) More than a quarter of Canadians believe that over the past five years, it’s become “more acceptable” to be prejudiced against Muslims, according to an exclusive poll by Ipsos for Global News. The polling seems to correlate with an increase […]
(CBC) A promised overhaul of Canada’s citizenship guide remains a work in progress with just months left in the Liberal government’s mandate. That leaves newcomers to the country with the existing guide — which is riddled with historical gaps and outdated information — as […]
(Toronto Sun) Two years ago our federal parliament passed M103, a motion condemning Islamophobia. Part of the non-binding text referred to the need to reduce or eliminate “systemic racism and religious discrimination,” with a specific reference to Islamophobia. Conservatives offered a more […]
(CBC) On the final day of legislative hearings into a bill that will dictate who can wear religious symbols in Quebec, a young black woman wearing a hijab had a blunt message for the provincial government. “I have the intention of breaking this glass […]
(CBC) An organization representing all nine of Quebec’s English school boards says the province’s proposed ban on religious symbols can’t be imposed on them, potentially opening a new front in the legal resistance to the legislation. Like some of their French counterparts, English schools boards […]
(CBC) The mayor of Quebec’s biggest city accused the provincial government on Tuesday of rushing ahead with a controversial proposal to restrict religious symbols without considering the harm it will cause Montreal’s diverse population. At a legislative hearing in Quebec City, Valérie Plante said the […]
(CBC) City councillors have voted down a motion that would have urged Montreal police to allow officers to wear religious symbols on the job. Councillors voted Tuesday 32-19 against the motion, debated on the same day Mayor Valérie Plante testified at Quebec’s Bill […]
(CBC) There has been a sharp increase in harassment directed at Muslim women in Quebec since the province tabled draft legislation to ban religious symbols in parts of the civil service, according to a women’s advocacy group. Justice Femme, a Montreal organization that […]
(Canadian Press) The federal Tories are accusing the Trudeau government of playing politics by stripping specific references to specific religious groups from its annual report on terrorism. Conservative public-safety critic Pierre Paul-Hus suggested to the House of Commons national-security committee Monday that the Liberals bowed […]
(CBC) For the second time this week, the Quebec government has been forced to distance itself from a supporter of its secularism bill who made incendiary remarks about Islam at a legislative hearing. The bill proposes barring some civil servants — including public […]
(CBC) It wasn’t until late on the second day of hearings into Quebec’s secularism bill that lawmakers heard from someone who wears one of the religious symbols targeted by the legislation. But by the time Samira Laouni wrapped up her testimony, the committee was […]
Thank you for reading Eye on Islamism.