(CBC) The English Montreal School Board was expected to vote Wednesday night on whether it would enforce the province’s religious symbols ban, but the item was struck from the agenda shortly before the start of the meeting. “I guess the majority of the commissioners […]
(CBC) Kitchener councillors have voted unanimously to denounce the Quebec government’s secularism bill. Ward 8 Coun. Margaret Johnston introduced the motion at a council meeting Monday night. Quebec’s Bill 21 bans public workers in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols such as […]
(CBC) The deputy leader of the federal Green Party says he would like to see Canada’s attorney general intervene in court cases that challenge Quebec’s new law on religious symbols. But that position is at odds with the party’s official position on the legislation […]
(CBC) A Muslim civil liberties group is calling on Quebec City police to take hate crimes more seriously, after the police force blamed “human error” for a large discrepancy between their own records and those provided by Statistics Canada. “All Canadians deserve to feel […]
(CBC) Jack Letts has every right as a Canadian citizen to come to Canada, legal analysts say, but the man dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by the media and accused of being an ISIS fighter may not have an easy time getting into the country. “Citizenship doesn’t […]
(CBC) Quebec’s largest school board appears to be falling into line when it comes to the province’s new religious symbols law, despite saying earlier this summer it wouldn’t apply the rules until holding further consultations. The Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) began quietly including a notice […]
(CBC) Othman Ayed Hamdan named the Revelstoke Dam in B.C. as a potential target in a series of online posts praising ISIS and cheering on lone wolf attacks. Now, he may be released into nearby Enderby while he awaits deportation from Canada, […]
(CBC) Biftu Hulo still remembers the day — not long after she became head of the Carleton University Muslim Students Association — that her phone rang. When she picked up, she couldn’t believe who was on the line: a representative from the Canadian Security […]
(CBC) When Ramz Aziz received a nervous phone call from his mother-in-law two years ago, it wasn’t to check in on his new baby. Instead, two men were at her door, looking for him. The pair identified themselves as public safety officers, and […]
(CBC) Hassan Diab and his lawyer are accusing the federal government of perpetrating a “whitewash” after an external review, released today, concluded government lawyers acted ethically and followed proper procedures in extraditing him to France for a terrorism case that later fell […]
(CBC) Two civil rights groups are seeking an appeal after a Quebec Superior Court justice refused their emergency request to temporarily freeze parts of the province’s new religious symbols law. The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and the Canadian Civil Liberties […]
(CBC) The Canadian wing of an international Jewish organization wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to send government lawyers to join the legal fight against Quebec’s secularism law. B’nai Brith Canada published an open letter Thursday after a Quebec Superior Court justice denied […]
(CBC) A Quebec Superior Court justice has rejected a request to temporarily suspend parts of the province’s new religious symbols law, though he did agree it raises “serious” constitutional questions. Justice Michel Yergeau said Thursday the court must defer, at this stage, […]
(CBC) The Quebec government can’t “with a straight face” claim its new religious symbols law won’t have any harmful effects, a lawyer for two civil rights groups told a Superior Court justice Tuesday. Catherine McKenzie made the comment as she asked the […]
(CBC) Quebec’s religious symbols law was not yet 12 hours old when it became the subject of a Superior Court motion seeking to have it struck down. On Tuesday, the motion, filed last month by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and […]
(CBC) A Victoria councillor has tabled a motion that will ask the city to support a legal challenge of a Quebec law that bans employees from wearing religious symbols at work. The motion from Sharmarke Dubow asks that the City of Victoria […]
(CBC) A pre-election survey conducted for CBC News suggests Canadians are divided on immigration, with clear limits on the kind of migration they find acceptable. The government groups immigrants into three categories: economic, which are skilled workers and businesspeople, along with their […]
(CBC) Quebec Premier François Legault says he doesn’t “really” believe Muslim women in the province who say they’ve been the target of Islamophobic incidents since the government passed a law making it illegal for some civil servants to wear religious symbols. Several Muslim […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(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, […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
(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 […]
Thank you for reading Eye on Islamism.