Liberals reject motion on discrimination
Tories accused of creating ‘wave of Islamophobia’
• All 165 Liberal MPs in the House of Commons Tuesday, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, voted against a motion calling on MPs to condemn “all forms of systemic racism, religious intolerance and discrimination” in the wake of “the recent and senseless violent acts at a Quebec City mosque.”
The Liberal rejection of that motion came hours after Alexandre Bissonnette, accused of six murders at that mosque, made a brief court appearance in Quebec City.
Meanwhile, the 126 Conservative, New Democrat and Bloc Québécois MPs, as well as the lone Green Party MP, voted in favour of the motion, put forward by Conservative MP David Anderson, which would have, among other things, asked a parliamentary committee to identify ways to reduce or eliminate “all types of discrimination in Canada,” including “discrimination of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus and other religious communities.”
Hours before voting on that motion, a Canadian Muslim leader blamed Conservatives for creating “waves of Islamophobia” with that motion.
Because the Liberals hold a majority in the House of Commons, Anderson’s motion failed by a vote of 126165, capping a week of emotional politicking that saw Liberal MPs say the recent mosque murders were the “direct result” of the kind of policies put forward by the Conservatives; that saw the Conservatives accuse the Liberals of trying to divide Canadians of different faiths; and a weekend that saw an anti-Semitic incident in Toronto while a mosque was vandalized in Montreal.
In debate in the House of Commons last week, the Liberal MPs said they could not vote for a motion that did not explicitly speak to Islamophobia even though MPs unanimously condemned Islamophobia not even four months ago, on Oct. 26.
Nonetheless, MPs will have the chance to condemn Islamophobia again when M-103, the motion from Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, comes up for a vote, likely in April.
Khalid’s motion asks MPs to “condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination.”
M-103, just like the motion rejected by the Liberals Tuesday, will also ask a parliamentary committee to reduce or eliminate “system racism and religious discrimination.”
Khalid’s insistence on including the word “Islamophobia” has proved so controversial, she and her office have received thousands of violent, hateful threats and she herself has been assigned police protection.
Liberals who voted against Anderson’s motion Tuesday will vote in favour of Khalid’s M-103 in April.
And while New Democrats who voted for Anderson’s motion will also likely vote for M-103 as well, many Conservatives, including interim leader Rona Ambrose and every leadership candidate except for Michael Chong, said they will vote against M-103, because they are bothered by the presence of the term Islamophobia, which they feel is poorly defined, or by the absence of explicit recognition that other faiths are victims of religious intolerance.
Conservatives presented those objections despite the fact that they, like every other party, agreed to that Oct. 26 motion “condemning all forms of Islamophobia.”
The inclusion of the word “Islamophobia” is vital, said Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum, who praised the Liberal government for rejecting the Islamophobia free motion from Conservative MP Anderson.
“The federal government has taken a very courageous stance,” Majzoub said at a Parliament Hill press conference, flanked by two Liberal MPs.
“We are a community under siege,” Majzoub. He said he has received telephone calls, for example, from Muslim mothers who worry about the safety of their Canadian-born children when they go to school.
Majzoub told reporters at a press conference Tuesday morning that the Liberals are right to vote against the Conservative motion because, in Majzoub’s view, the Conservatives are insincere in their desire to tackle the problem of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Canada.
“We have to look at this and the climate that the Conservatives have brought up with their motion. They have not brought it up prior to this. They tried to react in a way that unfortunately, whether directly or indirectly, that has created waves of Islamophobia all over the country,” Majzoub said.
The Canadian Muslim Forum, established in 1993, is a non-profit organization that sees its role to advocate for Muslim Canadians on public policy and civil rights issues. Majzoub, an educator, has been a longtime community activist in Montreal.
“This motion came as trying to delegitimize M-103, trying really to degrade this motion. So it didn’t come — and this is what we believe — it didn’t come as genuine,” Majzoub said.
Last week in the House of Commons, Liberal MP Chandra Arya said the Quebec mosque murders were a “direct result” of the kinds of policies “championed” in recent elections by the federal Conservative party and the provincial Parti Québécois.
Conservative MP Gerard Deltell angrily rejected Arya’s view.
THIS MOTION CAME AS TRYING TO DELEGITIMIZE M-103.