TREAT MUSLIMS AS PARTNERS IN OUR SECURITY, SALMA ZAHID

Canada can be a world leader in counter-radicalization,

I have always approached the debates we’ve had since Sept. 11, 2001, about national security and protecting rights and freedoms with some nervousness and trepidation.

I’m a Canadian Muslim of Pakistani descent. There are more than one million Muslims in Canada, and we have often felt unfairly targeted by security agencies and stigmatized as part of these security debates. We have been seen as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution.

Too often, our community has not been part of the discussions when it comes to designing a national security framework that both keeps Canadians safe, and protects our fundamental rights and freedoms.

Those of us who have chosen to come to Canada and make this our home did so for both the security that all Canadians take for granted and the rights and freedoms that all Canadians cherish. Many of us fled countries where personal liberties are severely limited or even nonexistent, and where violence and conflict are daily facts of life.

Yet, too often, we’ve been treated with suspicion and mistrust. It’s as if security agencies took a racial profiling approach to national security, rather than trying to work with the community. That needs to change. We need to bring a community policing approach to national security.

We know this approach works in our cities. By treating communities as partners, trust can be established based on mutual understanding and respect, and dialogue can begin. In the same way, national security agencies must proactively engage with the Muslim and other communities and make us partners in building a safer and freer society.

Parliament is debating Bill C-22, which would create parliamentary oversight of national security operations, nearly two years after the attack by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shook Parliament Hill and took the life of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. I wasn’t an MP then, but the shadows of those events loom large in these corridors. I am proud to be one of 11 Muslim MPs elected in 2015 to speak for all Canadians, and to work to ensure attacks like this never happen again.

A good start is the establishment of the Office of the Community Outreach and Counter-radicalization Coordinator. There is already a lot of great work taking place in communities across the county on counter-radicalization initiatives, but these initiatives are lacking coordination and resources, and best practices are not being shared.

Canada can become a world leader in counter-radicalization and show that it is possible to build an open, pluralistic and democratic society. And that means engaging all Canadians in keeping our nation both safe and free.

I still remember with sadness and anger the day my son came home from school and said, “Mommy, a kid in class called me a terrorist today.” Let us commit to building a Canada where our youth never have to feel that they are different, that they don’t belong, or that they are worthy of suspicion, simply because of their religion, their ethnicity or the colour of their skin.

I am a Canadian by choice. I am a Canadian of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Growing up in Pakistan, one thing we all knew about Canada was Pierre Trudeau and the Charter of Rights. It’s a document that says every Canadian, and everyone within our borders, has certain fundamental freedoms.

I would not be here in Canada, and a member of Parliament, were it not for this Charter, and these freedoms. I am committed to protecting and defending them, and Bill C-22 does just that.