NDP working to bring Our London Family Act back to life in the legislature
They plan to hold more consultations this summer with Muslim communities
Three years from the day that four members of a Muslim family were killed in a hate-motivated attack in London, Ont., politicians and advocates have renewed their calls in Queen's Park to end Islamophobia.
The anti-hate bill, dubbed the Our London Family Act, was drafted to address Islamophobia in the province and prevent future attacks. It was originally tabled eight months after the incident but was not debated and disappeared from the order paper when the 2022 provincial election was called.
On Thursday, the opposition told the Ontario Legislature it's decided to take the bill back to Muslim communities for an additional round of consultations and share its findings.
"One of the things we heard from the government previously when we proposed this legislation was they wanted to study it more," said Doly Begum, NDP MPP for Scarborough Southwest. "So here we are doing this study ourselves because over the last two years we have not seen that action."
That action is now even more urgently needed, said Begum, amid rising reports of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October. Mention of anti-Palestinian racism had been omitted from the previously tabled legislation, she said, making it important to return to groups like the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and push forward revisions.
Following consultations, the NDP plans to work with all political parties to get the legislative changes introduced. Actions would include anti-hate strategies in school boards, anti-racism training for public sector workers, and work to collect concrete data on the extent of hate-motivated incidents in Ontario.
"It should be a non-partisan issue," said London West MPP Peggy Sattler, a co-sponsor of the bill. "We want every person in this province, regardless of their faith, regardless of their background to feel safe."
On June 6, 2021, Yumnah Afzaal, 15, and her parents — Madiha Salman, 44, and Salman Afzaal, 46 — as well as family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed when they were intentionally hit by a truck while out for an evening walk in London's west end. A nine-year-old boy was injured and orphaned.
After a 10-week trial in Windsor, a London man was convicted of terrorism, along with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. The case served as a test of how Canada's terror laws apply to white nationalists.
In London, the Muslim community saw the largest increase in reported hate crimes of all groups in 2023, up 263 per cent over the year before.
Consultations with Muslim groups are set to be held in the summer, said Sattler.
To lawyer Nawaz Tahir, who is a member of the London-based Muslim advocacy group Hikma, those consultations are long overdue.
"Different organizations have published different kinds of data, but the common theme across all of those reports is that Islamophobia is up sharply," Tahir said.
Last month, a report to the London Police Services Board said hate crimes have risen significantly over the last five years.
In 2023, the report said, 29 per cent of hate crimes reported targeted Muslims. Police tied that to a wider national trend they said was amplified by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and spiked after the Hamas launched an attack into Israel on October 7 of the same year.
"I think there's a very deep level of angst and concern in the community for safety these days, even for something like speaking up on issues relating to Muslims or Palestine," said Tahir.
"We look forward to speaking to officials about it. We've been hoping in a non-partisan way that the legislature would honour the family. We think the act is an excellent way to do that."
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