'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Advocates are renewing calls for the federal government to review Quebec's controversial Bill 21 after four members of a Pakistani-Canadian family were killed in what police say was a targeted attack in London, Ont.
Journalist and human rights advocate Amira Elghawaby told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday that Canadians "understand that hate is a phenomenon in this country." However, she says they need to push political leaders to take action.
"While the vast majority of Canadians are loving and show solidarity… we know that there are elements within our society that are not only Islamophobic, but that have been targeting Asian-Canadians, Jewish Canadians, Indigenous people so there is a problem in our country," Elghawaby said.
Bill 21 was passed in Quebec in June 2019 and it forbids any employee of the state, including judges, police officers, or teachers, from wearing religious symbols at work.
While it only applies to people living in Quebec, Elghawaby says there are concerns it targets Muslim communities and speaks to a wider issue across Canada.
"If they want to practise their faith in this manner, essentially they are told by the state that they cannot hold various positions in society… and that really has curtailed the dreams and aspirations of many members of these communities," she said.
While Elghawaby acknowledges that Canada has made "a lot of progress" in tackling hate, she said the federal government should be intervening in the case of Bill 21.
Four years ago, the federal government had its first major debate on Islamophobia after the Quebec mosque shooting. Since then, they’ve added more extremist groups to Canada's terror list and set up a Community Resilience Fund to collect data and address radicalization that leads to violence in Canada.
Despite disagreeing with Bill 21, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that it is up to Quebecers to challenge and defend their rights in court.
"We really need to see more courage from all of our federal leaders," Elghawaby said, adding that citizens also need to implore their politicians to do more to maintain an inclusive society.
She explained that Canada is a democratic country and Canadians cherish the freedoms that come along with that.
"Everyone is treated equally with dignity, we all make our own choices in the morning, we decide what we're going to wear, we decide how we're going to practise or not practise our faith traditions, and that is essentially what it means to live in a democracy," Elghawaby said.
However, she says Quebec has "essentially eroded these rights and freedoms" for a specific group who are no longer being treated the same as other Canadians with Bill 21.
"What we should really be seeing from our federal leaders is not only the condemnation of this bill, but the active work to get the government there to remove this bill," Elghawaby said.
Elghawaby says the "horrific mass murder" in London, Ont. has caused Canadians to take a closer look at discrimination within their own communities, including the impact of Bill 21.
Talat Afzaal, 74, her son Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, and their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah Salman were out for a walk on June 6 when they were struck and killed by a truck in what London police say was a premeditated attack because they were Muslim.
Elghawaby says Bill 21 targets religious minorities and creates "what we call a second-class citizenship."
She said the bill has made the lives of certain minorities in Quebec “difficult” and has even caused some to move out of the province.
"Although we have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in this country, it's not being applied fairly and equally to everyone," she said. "This law basically takes away and erodes those rights and freedoms that all of us enjoy."
To help address this, Elghawaby says there needs to be a greater dialogue with Quebecers about why Bill 21 is "harmful to people's aspirations."
"Imagine a little girl or a little boy wants to grow up be a teacher, be a police officer, and they have a religious practice that they want to participate in, and they're told, 'You can't do any of these professions'," Elghawaby said.
"Why should they be treated any differently than any other Quebecer or any other Canadian?"
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
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There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
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A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.