Journalist and activist Amira Elghawaby will fill the post to serve as a champion, adviser, expert and representative to support and enhance the federal government’s effort in fighting Islamophobia, systemic racism, racial discrimination and religious intolerance.
Trudeau praised her appointment as an important step in the fight against Islamophobia and hatred in all its forms. He further went on to say that “diversity” is truly one of the greatest strengths of Canada, but for many Muslims, Islamophobia is too familiar.
The position was created in the wake of the recent attacks on Muslims in the country.
The creation of the new job had been recommended at a national summit on Islamophobia organised by the federal government in June 2021
Over the past few years, a series of deadly attacks have targeted the Muslim Community of Canada to a certain extent.
In June 2021, four members of a Muslim Family were crushed underneath the wheels of a truck. Four years earlier, six Muslims died and five were grievously injured in an attack on the Quebec City Mosque.
In a series of tweets, she listed the names of those killed in recent attacks adding that “We must never forget.”
Elghawaby is an active human rights campaigner and is also a communications head for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation along with being a columnist for Toronto Star Newspaper.
She has previously worked for more than a decade at the public broadcaster CBC.
