On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the shooting at a Quebec City mosque that left six worshippers dead,
Ricochet contributor Sanaa Ali-Mohammedexplores the “systemic, institutional, and societal forms of exclusion (that) remain a daily reality for many Canadian Muslims.” This is partly due to lack of public funding for “anti-Islamophobia work led by the people and civil-society groups who understand the issue and experience it most severely,” she says.
According to her research, “in 2019, the Department of Canadian Heritage, through its Community Support, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism Initiatives program, allocated just 3.7 per cent of $21 million in funding to Muslim-led and -serving organizations,” with just two per cent to “organizations meaningfully led by hijab-wearing Muslim women, 0.4 per cent to organizations led by Black Muslims, and one per cent to first-time Muslim recipients of federal funding.”