Mosque attack survivors asked Elghawaby to apologize to Quebecers
Co-founder of Islamic centre cites request
• Before Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s first special representative on combating Islamophobia, made a surprising apology for past comments on Quebecers she received a phone call from surviving members of the 2017 mass shooting at the Quebec City mosque.
The co-founder of the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre, Boufeldja Benabdallah, revealed in an interview with a Montreal radio talk show that he and other members of the mosque picked up the phone on Tuesday, shortly after the National Assembly of Quebec asked her to resign, to plead with her to clearly apologize for past writings that he said lacked perspective.
“There’s no shame in making a mistake, and to be called out by your brother or your sister,” said Benabdallah in French. “So rectify (the situation) and be clear, sister Amira, and she listened to us. I think she also listened to other people — we weren’t the only ones.”
Elghawaby apologized on Wednesday, at the start of a meeting with Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-francois Blanchet. “I have been listening very carefully, I have heard you and I know what you’re feeling. And I’m sorry,” she said, sitting beside a surprised Blanchet.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters he had not asked her to apologize, and reiterated his support for her in the new role.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also said he was satisfied with her apology and said she has some important work ahead of her to fight Islamophobia.
Conservatives and the Bloc, on the other hand, are siding with the Quebec National Assembly in continuing to call for her to step down — or for Trudeau to remove her from her position.
The criticism of Elghawaby began almost immediately after Trudeau appointed her on Jan. 26. It stems from an opinion piece she co-wrote in 2019, which said that a “majority of Quebecers appear to be swayed not by the rule of law, but by anti-muslim sentiment." She attempted to clarify her remarks last Friday by saying that they reflected the findings of a poll on Quebec’s new law against certain government employees wearing religious symbols at work, known as Bill 21. She said she had nothing to apologize for.
Since then, critics have pointed out another opinion piece from 2013 in which she implied that Quebecers are obsessed with the purity of their race and a tweet since deleted from 2021 in which she said she was going to “puke” in response to an author recounting French Canadians as having been the largest group of people victimized by British colonialism.
Benabdallah worried that such comments might quash some of the progress made for the Muslim community in Quebec in recent years.
“The people of Quebec are not Islamophobic, there is a seed which is Islamophobic. The people of Quebec are not racist, there is a seed which is racist. One cannot let this seed grow. That is what should have been said,” he told the Montreal talk show on Wednesday.
He added that now that she has apologized and recognized her faults, she should be given a chance to accomplish the work she has been asked to do.
Meanwhile, Elghawaby is continuing to meet with Quebec politicians to try to smooth things over.
On Thursday, she met with Pablo Rodriguez, federal minister of Canadian Heritage and Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant, who had expressed that he had felt deeply offended by her past comments on Quebecers. Contrary to Blanchet’s meeting, this one was kept entirely private and the media was not invited to a photo-op beforehand.
She is also to meet with Quebec Solidaire, the provincial left-leaning party which abstained on the motion calling for her resignation this week, at a future date that has not yet been determined.
Blanchet said on Thursday it is clear in his mind that Elghawaby cannot occupy this position — and that it should just be abolished altogether. But he laid the blame solely on Trudeau.
“He made an institution which was set to deal with racism into a political instrument that would oppose the Muslim community to the Quebec nation, and create a harmful amalgamation between secularism and Islamophobia,” he said in a press conference.
Although he said she is “very smart” and a “great communicator,” Elghawaby embodies a “very Torontonian” vision of Quebec, which led to many biases, the Bloc leader said, adding he is encouraged to see that she’ll be learning more about Quebec society.
Asked if he had the same curiosity for issues facing the Muslim community, Blanchet touted that he is an anthropologist by training and that he is “very curious” by nature.
THERE’S NO SHAME IN MAKING A MISTAKE.