Mississauga grants parking exemptions for Eid
Mayor’s last-minute decision matched a move council made last Easter Sunday
A parking exemption that made it easier for Mississauga Muslims to participate in Monday’s Eid al-Adha celebrations came at the last minute.
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie pushed forward the exemption across the city on Friday, after the exemption was deferred at Wednesday’s council meeting and a councillor was accused of religious discrimination.
“We are an inclusive, multicultural, multi-religious city and country,” Crombie said Friday, explaining that she had missed Wednesday’s meeting because she was out of the province attending a conference, and was dismayed to hear later that the parking exemption wasn’t approved but instead referred back to staff for a report to determine which major religious holidays should qualify for citywide parking exemptions.
“Things have moved quickly — 11 per cent of our population will be celebrating Eid al-Adha on Monday, so my council colleagues and I just approved a temporary parking exemption across the city for Monday. We are notifying all the city’s mosques and the public right now.”
Crombie said the support she received Friday for the temporary parking exemption, before a resolution for a permanent one for all major religious holidays is dealt with, came via email from council members. She said all councillors who responded supported the decision, except Councillor Pat Saito. During Wednesday’s meeting, Councillor Carolyn Parrish, who supported the parking exemption, suggested Saito was guilty of religious intolerance because she would not support the move without a proper staff report on the implications.
“I said to her if it was a Christian holiday, we wouldn’t be having this debate,” Parrish said Friday. “Such a parking exemption should be passed for all our major holidays for all our major religions in Mississauga, and frankly across Canada. Mississauga is an incredibly diverse city, a modern city, with a modern mayor and hopefully a modern council. We passed the exact same last-minute exemption for this past Easter Sunday in 30 seconds.”
Saito explained that she technically did not vote in the email process, because she could only support a temporary exemption for Monday if a particular street in her ward was not included.
“I’m putting their safety ahead of someone’s request for parking exemptions,” Saito said.
She said the cul-de-sac in question gets overcrowded by cars because of overflow from a nearby mosque that does not have adequate parking. Saito said she would make people’s safe- ty a priority ahead of “any reason.”
Asked if she was opposed to a similar citywide temporary parking exemption approved last-minute before Easter Sunday, Saito said she was not opposed and supported the move because, “It was still part of the Easter weekend and that’s why we supported it.”
The city has a parking exemption in place for all statutory holidays, but because Easter Sunday is not such a holiday, council, including Saito, passed a temporary parking exemption just prior to the significant date for Christians, and later a formal resolution to exempt citywide parking restrictions on Easter Sunday going forward.
Last year, Saito came under fire when she was the only member of council who would not support the application, which staff approved, for a new mosque in her ward, as the issue had divided many in the neighbourhood. Her opposition was due to concerns that there was not enough parking at the mosque and that it would overflow onto surrounding streets.
Saito said Friday she believes all major religious holidays observed in Mississauga should have parking exemptions to allow celebratory gatherings, but she said staff would have to determine what those significant holidays are.
“I believe in doing my homework . . . my residents know that my decisions are not based on race, religion or anything. I base my decisions on facts and the impact to the community.”
Eid al-Adha is one of the two significant religious holidays on the Islamic calendar, marking the end of the hajj, the spiritual journey to the valley of Mecca.
Jamal Ibrahim, a volunteer at Mississauga’s Masjid (mosque) Al-Farooq, said the move Friday by Crombie and her determined push for the exemption, along with Parrish, “is fantastic. I’m very thankful that the mayor and the councillor and council have shown empathy for the Muslim community and all faith groups. The parking exemption is fair for all religions, all individuals in Mississauga.”