Canada appoints first advisor to combat Islamophobia

Canada appoints first advisor to combat Islamophobia. Canada on Thursday appointed its first special representative on combatting Islamophobia, a position created following several recent attacks on Muslims in the country.

Journalist and activist Amira Elghawaby will fill the post to “serve as a champion, advisor, expert and representative to support and enhance the federal government’s efforts in the fight against Islamophobia, systemic racism, racial discrimination and religious intolerance,” a statement by the prime minister’s office said.

An active human rights campaigner, Elghawaby is the communications head for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and a columnist for the Toronto Star newspaper, having previously worked for more than a decade at public broadcaster CBC.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Elghawaby’s appointment as “an important step in our fight against Islamophobia and hatred in all its forms.”

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“Diversity truly is one of Canada’s greatest strengths, but for many Muslims, Islamophobia is all too familiar,” he added.

Over the past few years, a series of deadly attacks have targeted Canada’s Muslim community.

In June 2021, four members of a Muslim family were killed when a man ran them over with his truck in London, Ontario.

Four years earlier, six Muslims died and five were injured in an attack on a Quebec City mosque.

In a series of tweets Thursday, Elghawaby listed the names of those killed in the recent attacks, adding: “We must never forget.”

The creation of the new job had been recommended by a national summit on Islamophobia organised by the federal government in June 2021 in response to the attacks.