Elghawaby apologizes for comments about Quebecers; Trudeau stands by her appointment despite backlash

Canada’s new special representative on combating Islamophobia is apologizing for hurting Quebecers, on the same day Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was standing by her appointment.

Amira Elghawaby apologized before a meeting Wednesday with Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet.

She says she is “extremely sorry” for the way her words have carried and how they hurt the people of Quebec. She says she will listen carefully and that’s what dialogue is all about.

Multiple politicians in Quebec, including Premier François Legault and Blanchet, have called for Elghawaby to be removed from her role because of comments she made in a 2019 column.

“I believe she does not know Quebec,” said Blanchet on Wednesday. “She does not know our history.”

The column in question, co-written with former Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber, cited polling data to say that “a majority of Quebecers” who supported Bill 21 also held anti-Muslim views.

Farber and Elghawaby, a journalist and human-rights activist, were board members with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network at the time.

After Wednesday’s meeting with Blanchet, Elghawaby said she still feels Bill 21 is a discriminatory law.

Elghawaby tweeted on Friday: “I don’t believe that Quebecers are Islamophobic, my past comments were in reference to a poll on Bill 21. I will work with partners from all provinces and regions to make sure we address racism head on.”

I don’t believe that Quebecers are islamophobic  my past comments were in reference to a poll on Bill 21. I will work with partners from all provinces and regions to make sure we address racism head on.

— Amira Elghawaby (@AmiraElghawaby) January 27, 2023

 

Criticism of Bill 21

Quebec’s Bill 21 has been heavily criticized – including by Trudeau – for discriminating against members of religious minorities by banning them from wearing religious symbols at their public-service workplaces.

On Wednesday , Trudeau said Quebec has a complicated history with religion, citing the oppression of the Catholic Church in the province before the Quiet Revolution largely removed the church from government services including health care and education.

RELATED: Bill 21 has discriminatory consequences, warn activists

He said it is important to him that all Canadians understand that before the Quiet Revolution, Quebecers “suffered the yoke and the attacks on individual rights and freedoms of an oppressive church.”

“And that comes with it a certain perspective around what secularism is, and the role of religion in society that informs what modern Quebec is,” he said.

‘Quebecers are not racists’

“Quebecers are not racists. Quebecers are among the people who are the strongest defenders of individual rights and freedoms.”

There are also Canadians, including in the Muslim community, for whom religion is extremely important in both a public and a private way, he said.

“Societies like Canada will always have to grapple it, and the way to grapple it is to bring forward people who are open to those conversations and open to that engagement, and that’s what I know Amira is,” said Trudeau.

“What we need now is people who can understand and bridge those two realities.”

Elghawaby, he said, is the right person to try and bridge that divide.

—With files from Cormac MacSweeney