The 72nd meeting of the Heritage Committee entertained witness testimony from Tarek Fatah, Michel Juneau Katsuya and several representatives from the Ontario Human Rights Commission. An audio recording of the proceedings can be found below.

The proceedings were truly remarkable as Mr. Fatah spared no horses in detailing just how the "wool is being pulled over the eyes" of the Committee and the Canadian government in general. He was emphatic that the acceptance of Islamophobia as a form of religious discrimination was akin to denying Canadian Muslims the right to defend themselves from the religious bigots (mullahs) that they came to Canada to escape. He went on to state that hundreds of Canadian mosques are under the influence of extremist, Muslim Brotherhood operatives and, at one point, was upbraided by the Chair of the Committee herself for improper etiquette - he was speaking directly to the questioner rather than through the Chair. Mr. Fatah did not relent in his message that Islamophobia, as currently understood in Canadian parlance, is not what the Committee thinks it is. He stated that Muslims against Sharia Law were not held in the same esteem as Muslims who worked for the establishment of such law in Canada.

Mr. Katsuya was equally remarkable as he stated the greatest potential source of Canadian hate crimes and terrorism resided in a rising tide of "alt-right" forces. He offered no evidence for such a claim save for the Quebec mosque attack of 29 January, 2017. In this particular case, he offered no substantiation of claims that the perpetrator was motivated by hate and not asked to explain the fact that no charges of hate or terror had yet been leveled in the case. Mr. Katsuya continued that alt-right forces were being fed by a feeling of insecurity and that this flame of insecurity was being fanned by "trash" radio that had gone too far. His solution was to clamp down on the free speech rights of such entities.

 

It is safe to say that M-103 deliberations have dropped any sense of being benign and of no consequence to the free speech rights of Canadians. This right is now squarely on the table and being adjudicated by a Committee and a Chair who, as Mr. Fatah stated, scoff at those who oppose Sharia.