Trudeau defends anti-Islamophobia rep, says 'religion is vital in public and private ways'

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his new special representative on combating Islamophobia, calling her the perfect person to help Canadians grapple with difficult conversations about religion.

Amid calls from Quebec's CAQ government for Amira Elghawaby to resign, Trudeau is rejecting calls to rescind her appointment over comments she made in a 2019 column.

Quebec Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge said Monday that Elghawaby linked "anti-Muslim sentiment" to Quebec's Bill 21, which bans certain government employees from wearing religious symbols at work.

Quebec's Bill 21 has received nationwide criticism — including from Trudeau — for discriminating against members of religious minorities by banning them from wearing religious symbols at their public-service workplaces.

On Wednesday morning, Trudeau acknowledged that Quebec has a complicated history with religion. He referenced the oppression of the Catholic Church before the Quiet Revolution that removed the church from government services, including health care and education.

Trudeau claimed it is essential that all Canadians understand that before the Quiet Revolution, Quebecers "suffered the yoke and the attacks on individual rights and freedoms of an oppressive church."

"And that comes with it a certain perspective around what secularism is, and the role of religion in society that informs what modern Quebec is," he said. "Quebecers are not racists."

Roberge said Elghawaby still needed to apologize for her comments.

Last week, Elghawaby tweeted that she doesn't believe Quebecers are "Islamophobic." She said her opinion piece reflected a poll indicating most Quebecers with negative views of Islam supported Bill 21.

Trudeau added that Canadians, including the Muslim community, claim religion is vital in public and private ways.

"What we need now is people who can understand and bridge those two realities," said Trudeau, who supported Elghawaby as the right person to try and bridge that divide.

The continued controversy comes amid the federal government's ongoing push for legislation that regulates the internet, which Elghawaby said would be a priority as part of her appointment.

"Among some of the priorities we've identified is addressing online harms," Elghawaby told Politico in an interview. "Continuing to advance and advocate for strong legislation will be very important."

"If we don't get a handle on the hate, the misinformation that's fueling a lot of the extremist views that are harming us, and also fueling the stereotypes and myths about who Muslims are, then it's almost two steps forward, three steps back," Elghawaby said of online harms legislation.

However, critics claim that "online harms" legislation is problematic, citing broad definitions that could control more than "hate speech."

Elghawaby added that she would work with communities to inform the feds of anti-hate policies, including the soon-to-launch National Action Plan on Combating Hate (NAP). 

The government is unsure how the NAP would work but likened it to past anti-hate commitments, such as a promise to introduce online-harm legislation and a program to promote a "healthy information ecosystem" online.

Trudeau also plans to introduce a Digital Safety Commissioner who could remove offensive content on the internet.

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