National Assembly wades into Amira Elghawaby controversy

31 Jan 2023

Motions condemning Justin Trudeau's pick as Canada's representative on combating Islamophobia are to be tabled in the Quebec legislature.

Published Jan 31, 2023  •  Last updated 16 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Amira Elghawaby has nuanced her comments, saying "I don't think Quebecers are Islamophobes; my comments were in reference to a poll on Bill 21." Amira Elghawaby has nuanced her comments, saying "I don't think Quebecers are Islamophobes; my comments were in reference to a poll on Bill 21." Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

QUEBEC — The Amira Elghawaby controversy roared to life at the National Assembly on Tuesday, with some politicians calling for her to apologize or resign from her post as Canada’s representative on combating Islamophobia.

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On the first day the legislature resumed sitting since the holidays, the Coalition Avenir Québec government and the Parti Québécois opposition signalled their intentions to table motions condemning Elghawaby’s comments about Quebecers.

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The only party that did not call on Elghawaby to apologize or resign was Québec solidaire, which has already said if elected it would dismantle key sections of Quebec’s state secularism law, Bill 21.

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“What M. Elghawaby said, first of all, is false,” Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois told reporters at a morning news conference. “We should not paint all Quebecers with the same brush. And it’s also hurtful for Quebecers.

“But to get to the bottom of this, one my colleagues, Andrés Fontecilla, will meet her to get to the bottom of this because we have questions for her.”

The other parties, including Quebec’s Liberals, were less generous in their views.

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Sometime after 3 p.m., Jean-François Roberge, the minister responsible for secularism, is to table a motion in the legislature addressing the controversy. The wording of the motion is not known yet.

On Monday, Roberge issued a statement calling for Elghawaby to be removed from her post because of her past remarks about Quebecers being anti-Islamic and for her criticism of Bill 21.

“Unfortunately, the majority of Quebecers appear to be swayed not by the rule of law but by anti-Muslim sentiment,” Elghawaby wrote in a 2019 opinion piece she co-authored with Bernie Farber in the Ottawa Citizen.

On Monday, Elghawaby tried to nuance her comments.

“I don’t think Quebecers are Islamophobes; my comments were in reference to a poll on Bill 21,” she wrote in a statement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accepted her clarification and said she will stay.

“I support Amira Elghabawy 100 per cent,” Trudeau said arriving for a Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa.

But in Quebec City, the legislature was buzzing about the appointment.

Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay repeated comments he made on Twitter Monday to the effect Elghawaby’s remarks were “unacceptable and insulting.”

“Ms. Elghawaby has to take the full measure of how insulting and factually wrong she was for saying this,” Tanguay said, calling for an apology. “Time is of the essence for her.”

But Tanguay had to put out his own internal party brush fire when the Liberal critic for the fight against racism, Jennifer Maccarone, expressed sympathy for Elghawaby.

“The CAQ is demonstrating once again its rigidity and a lack of humanism in not supporting the nomination of M. Elghawaby,” Maccarone wrote Monday in a tweet, which has since been removed.

Maccarone has since apologized for the tweet.

“This morning I made an error and I sincerely apologize,” Maccarone wrote in a new tweet. “I understand and share your indignation connected to the remarks of M. Elghawaby. If I wounded some, I am sorry.”

Ce matin, j’ai commis une erreur et je m’en excuse sincèrement.
Je comprends et partage votre indignation en lien avec les propos de Mme Elghawaby.
Si j’ai pu en blesser certains, j’en suis désolée.

— Jennifer Maccarone Députée/MNA (@JMaccarone) January 31, 2023

Tanguay dismissed the confusion and lack of a clear party line as a communications issue.

“The internal team work had not been completed,” Tanguay said. “It’s a team mistake and I am taking responsibility for it. There is only one position and that’s the one I stated yesterday afternoon.”

Later, Pascal Bérubé, the Parti Québécois secularism critic, announced his party, which is to be admitted for the first time to the chamber after a controversy over the oath to King Charles III, will table its own motion condemning the nomination and describing it as an attack on Quebec’s right to decide its future.

“She (Elghawby) must leave and so must we (from Canada),” Bérubé told reporters.

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Tom Mulcair: Amira Elghawaby is the wrong person for the job Amira Elghawaby in Ottawa in January 2022. CAQ government wants federal anti-Islamophobia adviser removed over Bill 21 comments
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