Amira Elghawaby | |
|---|---|
 Elghawaby in 2023 | |
| 1st Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia | |
| Assumed office February 20, 2023 | |
| Personal details | |
| Alma mater | Carleton University |
Amira Elghawaby is a Canadian journalist, communications professional, and human rights activist. She was appointed as Canada's first Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia in January 2023.
Elghawaby was born to Egyptian parents; her father was an engineer. [1]
She emigrated to Canada at the age of two months with her mother, and also spent four of her early years in Bandung, Indonesia. [1] She grew up in the East End of Ottawa. [2]
Elghawaby has a degree in journalism and law from Carleton University. [3] [4]
Elghawaby is a human rights activist and a journalist. [3] She is employed as a communications lead by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, [3] and is a freelance journalist who contributes columns to The Toronto Star. [3] She previously worked at CBC News, the Canadian labour movement, [3] and as a human rights co-ordinator [5] for the National Council of Canadian Muslims. [6] [7] She was one of the founding board members of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network [8] and is a member of Canada's National Security Transparency Advisory Group. [9]
On January 26, 2023, [8] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Elghawaby as Canada's first special representative on combatting Islamophobia, for a four-year term. [3] Her office has a budget of $5.6 million to cover the first five years of activities. [3]
The National Council of Canadian Muslims described her appointment as a "historic moment for Muslims in Canada". [8] Days after her appointment Quebec Premier François Legault called for her resignation, [10] after La Presse reported that Elghawaby had written that Quebeckers seem "influenced by anti-Muslim sentiment," in a 2019 column in the Ottawa Citizen . [11] The same La Presse article also reported that in May 2021 Elghawaby wrote "I'm going to puke" on Twitter in reaction to an opinion editorial by Joseph Heath, a philosophy teacher of the University of Toronto, who argued that French Canadians were the largest group in Canada to have suffered from British colonialism. [11]
Trudeau said he expected her comments to be clarified, [12] [13] but later reaffirmed that he stands by her appointment. [14] On February 1, 2023, Amira Elghawaby apologized for her comments about how her words in the past have hurt the people of Quebec. She expressed that has been listening to Quebecers. [15]
A parliamentary motion in the National Assembly of Quebec denouncing her appointment was supported by the Coalition Avenir Québec, Quebec Liberal Party and the Parti Québécois. [16]
On February 3, 2023, a letter in support of her appointment was published by a group of 30 prominent Québécois, including human rights lawyer Julius Grey, Quebec City Mosque co-founder Boufeldja Benabdallah, and Charles Taylor, professor emeritus at McGill University. The letter acknowledged the prior concern, but advocated for Elghawaby to be allowed to perform her new role. [17] [18] On February 5, a second letter with 200 signatories including Université de Montréal professor Nadia El-Mabrouk, and activist Ensaf Haidar, called for Elghawaby's resignation and the abolition of her office, signatories refused " to be associated to a Muslim community represented by people who promote a fundamentalist vision of Islam". [19] On February 14, speaking at the Senate of Canada former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi raised concerns about Islamophobia and urged parliamentarians to stand up for Elghawaby. [20] Rania Lawendy CEO of Action for Humanity Canada, said that the letters show "the Canadian political landscape is not a safe place for a visible Muslim woman, and this incident is a perfect example of how discrimination continues to be tolerated by our government leaders." [21]
On the backdrop of the Oct 7 Israel-Hamas conflict, on February 13, 2024, pro-Palestine demonstrators staged a protest at Mount Sinai Hospital located at downtown Toronto, a Jewish undertaking, [22] raising Palestinian flags and calls of intifada interfering with the operations of the hospital which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced it as reprehensible show of antisemitism, [23] Elghawaby came in support of demonstrators by posting "also troubling and wrong is the rush to label protesters as anti-Semitic and/or terrorist sympathisers." on the platform X. [24] Following her comments about the protest, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) called for Elghawaby's resignation or removal from her position. [25]
Elghawaby lives in Ottawa. [26] She is married with three children. [1] She is Muslim. [1]
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Events from the year 2023 in Canada.
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