At a public hearing in Edmonton, members of the local Muslim community shared powerful testimonies with senators about their experiences with racism and hate-motivated crimes.
It’s part of a Canada-wide study on Islamophobia conducted by the Senate Committee on Human Rights — proposed by Sen. Salma Ataullahjan.
“I was looking at the stats and I found out the most Muslims killed in a G7 country were in Canada — I was shocked,” Ataullahjan said Thursday.
Committee member and first Muslim senator, Mobina Jaffer, said they want to make the community feel like they are being heard.
“When you come to a city and hear from the people who are dealing with it, it makes me think this is not the country I know — this is not the country I came to,” Jaffer explained.
“There’s obviously work to do in the community, by the senate, to educate.”
It’s an escalating issue in Edmonton.
Earlier this year, police charged four people in connection with six assaults over the span of several months — all believed to be motivated by hate.
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In 2020, Edmonton recorded 79 hate crimes. In 2021, that number jumped to 116.
Jibril Ibrahim, president of the Somali-Canadian Cultural Society of Edmonton, spoke at the hearing — one of many witnesses calling for concrete action on the issue.
“Unless there is a consequence of these actions, then we will see more and more,” Ibrahim said.
“The most important thing that the federal government has to do is to look into the definition of hate crime.”
Ibrahim said those crimes are largely underreported because of historically negative interactions with police, including not being taken seriously.
The Edmonton Police Service said it takes these crimes seriously and its hate crimes investigators want to know about hate incidents.
“Hate impacts everyone and has far reaching impacts for victims and entire communities,” a spokesperson for EPS said in a statement.
“For this reason, we continue to work closely with our community partners to build trust and encourage citizens to feel safe reporting these crimes and incidents to police.”
EPS acknowledges hate crimes are underreported and noted an online reporting system is currently in development.
Police hope the tool will make reporting more accessible for those who feel uncomfortable calling police.
“There are people who have encountered hate crime, but they are afraid to report it, because of they’re afraid that the perpetrators might follow them to their house and do harm to them,” Ibrahim added.
One of his suggestions to senators is to put those charged with a hate-crime in a database — similar to sex offenders.
“What cannot be measured cannot be improved,” Ibrahim said.
“The only way they can come out of that database, if they want to, is to do community work of 200 hours — to work with the same community that they offended.”
Senators said it’s clear there are many aspect of the study to be closely examined, including changing the term Islamophobia.
“I’m re-thinking this whole name now — Islamophobia,” Ataullahjan said.
“We’ve had speakers express concern — to have a phobia means you’re scared of someone, but it doesn’t address the issues of the Muslims.”
Next, the committee will head to Quebec and then go to Toronto. The study is slated to keep going until late fall.
Findings from the study will go into a report that will make recommendations to Ottawa.
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