Question Period Note: Islamophobia in Canada

On June 6, 2024, the Globe and Mail reports on a witness, from the National Council of Canadian Muslims, testifying at a Parliamentary Committee hearing on Islamophobia that more Muslims have been killed in targeted attacks in Canada in the past seven years than in any other G7 country.

• The Government condemns all forms of hate or hate crimes in our country. All Canadians deserve to live, work, and practice their faith without fear of being attacked. Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and all forms of hate, are completely unacceptable.

• In response to this rise is rise in targeted violence, the Government of Canada in Budget 2024 announced an investment of $273.6 million over six years, starting in 2024-25, with $29.3 million ongoing, for Canada's Action Plan on Combatting Hate.

• For the Department of Public Safety, part of this funding will go to support the Security Infrastructure Program to improve the program and to support communities that fear for their safety, as well as new funding for the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence to help build capacity in violence prevention.

• The Government tabled Bill C-63 – the Online Harms Act – in February 2024 to reduce exposure to harmful content online, empower and support users, denounce hate propaganda, and ensure better recourse for victims of hate. I look forward to support my colleague, the Minister of Justice as he leads on the passage of this important new legislation in Parliament.

Since October 7th, many larger jurisdictions (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver specifically) have experienced notable increases in hate crimes, while some smaller jurisdictions have experience little to no change in hate crime reporting. However, anecdotally, many jurisdictions are seeing reduced hate crime reporting since December. For example, Montreal has observed a decrease in hate crimes reported back to numbers in line with pre-October 7th reporting.

On February 26, 2024, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Arif Virani introduced Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act. The Bill would create stronger online protection for children and better safeguard everyone in Canada from online hate and other types of harmful content. The Bill sets out a new vision for safer and more inclusive online participation. It would hold online platforms, including livestreaming and adult content services, accountable for the design choices made that lead to the dissemination and amplification of harmful content on their platforms and ensure that platforms are employing mitigation strategies that reduce a user’s exposure to harmful content. The new framework is focused on seven types of the most damaging and extremely harmful content online: content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor; intimate content communicated without consent; violent extremist and terrorist content; content that incites violence; content that foments hatred; content used to bully a child; and content that induces a child to harm themselves.

Security Infrastructure Program (SIP): Public Safety, through the Security Infrastructure Program (SIP), contributes to the Government of Canada’s efforts to help everyone feels safe in their community gathering spaces, particularly community centres, schools and places of worship. SIP supports communities at-risk of hate-motivated crimes by providing time-limited funding for security infrastructure. Funding is available to private, not-for-profit organizations that are at risk of being victimized by hate-motivated crime, including: places of worship; provincially/territorially recognized private educational institutions; shelters for victims of gender-based violence, community centres and/or other publicly accessible community-based facilities used by Canadian private, not-for-profit organizations, associations, or societies for their operations.

To help address the concerns that many communities were feeling because of international and domestic events, in Autumn 2023, the Minister of Public Safety announced an additional $10M as a temporary measure under the SIP to allow communities to enhance security measures on an urgent basis. In addition to the increase in funding, changes were introduced to ensure the SIP was responsive to the urgent needs of communities, including that applicants may now seek funding for time-limited security personnel, and for security measures at privately run, not-for-profit, community-based facilities such as daycares and office spaces.

To allow it to better address the evolving security requirements of communities, the Federal Budget 2023 invested $49.5 million in the SIP. Budget 2024 invested an additional $32 million over six years, starting in 2024-25, and $11 million ongoing, for Public Safety Canada to further enhance the SIP and to better support communities in addressing their security needs.

Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate (CAPCH): The 2024 Federal Budget announced $273.6 million over six years, starting in 2024-25, with $29.3 million ongoing, to support CAPCH. This funding will support community outreach and law enforcement reform, tackle the rise in hate crimes, enhance community security, counter radicalization, and increase support for victims.

CAPCH is built on a community-based approach with three pillars for actions: 1) Empowering communities to prevent hate; 2) Supporting victims and affected communities; and 3) Building community trust, partnerships and institutional readiness.

Public Safety’s Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre): The Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre) leads the Government of Canada's efforts to counter radicalization to violence, its work complements national security and criminal justice efforts, as well as broader initiatives to address harms like hate and gender-based violence. It works with many partners in Canada and internationally, including to lead Canada’s support for the Christchurch Call to Eliminate Terrorist & Violent Extremist Content Online.

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