By: Sukh Toor
The recent hate crime on a Quebec Muslim mosque has inspired a motion to alleviate stress from National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM).
Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of NCCM, said this is an important move.
“It has gone from bigotry and racial slurs to outright murder,” said Gardee.
Motion 103 plans to change all three levels of the government.
Moreover, NCCM requests that January 29 be named “National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia” to honour the memory of the six lives lost in the mosque attack.
Motion 103 asks cities to increase funding for local police services to train officers on hate crimes. Also, it requests to collect and publicly report on hate crimes annually.
Gardee is concerned that hate crimes are the most unreported crimes.
NCCM released a hate crimes map that outlines the crimes, where Islamic people were targeted, by date and nature of the crime.
Provincially, Motion 103 requests that provinces create an Anti-Racism Directorate and create a mandatory secondary school course on systemic racism and its impact.
The SAGE Handbook of Child Development, Multiculturalism, and Media from 2008 talks about the challenges of multicultural education for children.
“Multicultural education is not effective if those with privilege are not being made aware of their own privilege.”
In terms of federal change, Motion 103 asks members of parliament to find ways to abolish systemic racism and religious discrimination.
“It’s a well thought out approach,” said Gardee.
Members of parliament will vote following debate on Feb. 15.