Calls for anti-islamophobia rep to resign renewed by province
The National Assembly has again called for the resignation of Canada's special representative on combating Islamophobia.
In a strongly worded motion adopted unanimously Tuesday, the legislature denounced representative Amira Elghawaby, after it was discovered Elghawaby had written to Canadian colleges and universities urging them to hire more Muslim, Arab and Palestinian teachers.
The vote was 109 for, zero against.
The news of Elghawaby's letter was first reported by Le Journal de Québec. The letter was dated Aug. 30 and sent to institutions across the country.
Rising in the legislature, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry read the motion, which opens by noting education is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Government of Quebec.
It adds that hiring of professors has to be based on their “excellence and competence,” and “certainly not based on their religion.”
It says the National Assembly “reiterates that hiring professors on the basis of religion is not only discriminatory, but also contrary to the secularism of the state,” a principle entrenched in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
The motion says Elghawaby has made insulting remarks about the Quebec nation and described it as racist.
Finally, it states that the National Assembly reiterates a demand it made on Jan. 31, 2023 that Elghawaby resign.
The motion reflects other comments Déry made last week when the issue came up.
In her letter, Elghawaby says that since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October, a dangerous climate has arisen on campuses.
She offers a number of suggestions to ease tensions within educational institutions: supporting freedom of expression and academic freedom; briefing campus leaders on civil liberties and Islamophobia; and hiring more professors of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian origin.
Her appointment by Ottawa in January 2023 was met with immediate backlash in Quebec due to her previous comments criticizing the province's secularism law, which prohibits some public-sector workers in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols on the job.