Calls to fight hate and white supremacy going largely unheeded by politicians on first anniversary of Muslim family murder

By Fareed Khan

On June 6th Muslims across Canada marked the first anniversary of the day a white supremacist drove a truck into five members of a Muslim family while they were out for an afternoon walk in London, Ontario.  The hate-motivated crime resulted in the death of Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their daughter Yumna Afzaal, 15, and Salman Afzaal's mother, Talat Afzaal, 74.  The couple's son, Fayez, 9, was seriously injured in the attack and hospitalized.  He was left orphaned as a result of the attack.

 

In the year since this Islamophobic attack there have been additional hate crimes committed against individual Muslims and the Muslim community.  But it seems as if federal and provincial governments are not listening to anti-racism groups and anti-hate activists, who have called for an aggressive and coordinated effort to fight the increasing hate and white supremacy that Canadians are seeing. 

 

Since the attack in London last June there have been numerous incidents of anti-Muslim hate.  In March of this year a man with a hatchet entered a Mississauga mosque and managed to attack worshippers with bear spray before he was subdued.  In the same month the mosque in St. John’s, Newfoundland was vandalized while someone was inside praying.  During Ramadan Muslim worshippers leaving a Scarborough mosque were victims of a drive by shooting.  In Surrey, British Columbia a man driving a car tried to run down a group of worshippers after they had left late evening prayers at the end of April.  And in Alberta there have been a series of attacks targeting hijab-wearing Muslim women over the past year. 

 

Despite this act of white supremacist terrorism last year, despite rising Islamophobia and hate targeting racialized communities over the past five years since the Quebec City mosque attack, and despite multiple incidents of violent hate directed at Muslims, and other racialized minorities, Canada’s political leaders seem to be playing political games rather than acting on calls to tackle hate in this country in a meaningful way. 

 

Following the London attack politicians were quick to get in front of media to condemn this act of hate.  All federal party leaders attended the London vigil in the days following the murder of the Afzaal Family to condemn racism and anti-Muslim hate.  But little was done in the following months to turn those words into actions.  It was only in the recent federal budget that there were measures and spending dedicated to fighting hate.  But the amount budgeted was inadequate according to a number of anti-hate groups.

There was also hypocrisy on display at the London vigil for the Afzaals when Bloc Quebecois leader Yves Francois Blanchet spoke and expressed sympathy for the Muslim community.  Meanwhile his party continued to support Quebec’s Bill 21 "secularism" law which deliberately targets Muslims and other racialized communities, and results in those communities being stigmatized.

Over the last five years there have been three anti-Muslim hate incidents which have resulted in the death of 11 members of the Muslim community, all committed by people who believed in white supremacist ideology.  Since the Quebec City mosque attack in 2017 a Muslim volunteer was murdered by a neo-Nazi outside a west-end Toronto mosque in September 2020, and then the attack in London last year.  It is only by sheer luck that the attacks this year in Mississauga, Scarborough, and Surrey did not turn deadly.  Anti-hate activists wonder whether it take the death of more Muslims before governments take decisive action to fight rising hate and white supremacy in Canada.

Muslim organizations and anti-racism groups have repeatedly called on the federal government over the last several years to take an aggressive national leadership role in fighting Islamophobia and other forms of hate.  But the government’s actions have generally been underwhelming according to groups like Canadians United Against Hate.  When there has been occasional progress, like the budget funding announcement for anti-racism programs, the responsibility to lead the effort at a national level has been left up to small community-based and non-profit organizations without the experience or resources to do the job.

While the government can be justifiably criticized in its snail's pace effort to implement anti-hate programs, the official opposition does not have much to crow about in their commitment to fighting hate.  Former Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole failed to even mention racism once in the Conservative Party’s 2021 election document, and currently there is one candidate for the leadership of that party – MP Pierre Poilievre – who through his actions and words during the Ottawa occupation in February and since, has shown that he is happy to ally himself with racists, white supremacists, Islamophobes and anti-Semites.

Federal party leaders have also demonstrated a lack of conviction by failing to demonstrably and decisively oppose government sanctioned racism and Islamophobia in Quebec.  During the 2019 and 2021 election when they were asked if they would take action to oppose Quebec’s Bill 21 "secularism" law if they formed government – a law deemed to be racist and unconstitutional by lawyers and human rights experts.  Justin Trudeau, Erin O’Toole and Jagmeet Singh equivocated, with O'Toole saying it was Quebec's business, while BQ leader Blanchet said Quebec had the right to implement it even if it violated fundamental rights.

There have been ample opportunities for federal leaders to go beyond political spin about hate and racism in favour of meaningful and decisive actions over the past several years as we have seen increasing incidents of violent hate in Canada.  Despite considerable mainstream and social media coverage of hate motivated violence against Muslims, Black people, Indigenous Canadians, Asian Canadians and others, Canadian leaders seem to be oblivious to the need for immediate and decisive action to respond to it.

For Muslims and Canada’s other racialized and minority communities words are no longer enough, action speaks louder, and action to fight the growing hate in this country is essential, and is needed now!

© 2022 Fareed Khan. All rights reserved.