Trudeau's anti-Islamophobia rep endorses 'online harms' legislation to regulate internet

The Canadian Press / Jacques Boissinot and The Canadian Press / Nick Iwanyshyn

• By Raheel Raza

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The Quebec government is calling on the Trudeau Liberals to fire their recently appointed special representative to combat Islamophobia over past insinuations she made concerning the province.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed journalist and activist Amira Elghawaby last week, who joins as an anti-hate appointee after previously working at the Toronto Star and CBC News, as well as at the National Council of Canadian Muslims and Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

Quebec Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge said on Monday that Ottawa should fire her immediately if she chooses not to resign, citing a 2019 op-ed she co-wrote.

In her piece, Elghawaby linked "anti-Muslim sentiment" to Quebec's Bill 21, which bans certain government employees from wearing religious symbols at work.

Roberge said Elghawaby needs to apologize for those comments.

However, she tweeted last week that she doesn't believe Quebecers are "Islamophobic." She said her op-ed reflected a poll indicating most Quebecers with negative views of Islam supported Bill 21.

The controversy comes amid the Trudeau Liberals' ongoing push for legislation that regulates the internet, which Elghawaby said would be a priority for her job.

"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.

The Trudeau Liberals also plan to introduce a Digital Safety Commissioner who could remove offensive content.