As Palestinian Canadians fought to get their families out of Gaza, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was updating its anti-racism strategy.
The federal initiative sets out policy priorities to combat systemic racism and discrimination in Canada, including in the public service. And defenders of the Palestinian community saw this as an opportunity.
“We put pressure on the government: ‘You have to recognize (anti-Palestinian racism)… We have to start by getting it recognized in the anti-racism strategy,’” Majid said.
But when Ottawa unveiled its updated plan for 2024 to 2028, this call went unheeded.
The new strategy acknowledges that Canada has experienced “unprecedented levels of hatred towards the Jewish, Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities” since October 2023, and that Palestinians – like “other racialized and religious minority communities” – face to systemic racism.
Yet anti-Palestinian racism is not explicitly listed in the document, which defines four types of racial and religious discrimination: anti-Asian and anti-black racism, as well as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
“This strategy is designed to support all at-risk communities, including Palestinian Canadians,” a spokesperson for Kamal Khera, the Canadian minister overseeing the strategy, told Tel Aviv Tribune in an email when asked why anti-Palestinian racism was not formally included.
Waleed Saleem, the spokesperson, said the government had consulted with communities, including through a national summit on Islamophobia and roundtables “with Muslim, Arab and Palestinian Canadians.”
He added that $51 million (C$70 million) “in direct funding to communities is available to everyone, including Palestinian communities.”
Salma Zahid, a Canadian MP from Trudeau’s Liberal Party who pushed for the inclusion of anti-Palestinian racism, told Tel Aviv Tribune she could not say why the term was not included in the new plan.
“What I can say is I push them to recognize that and include it,” she said.
Zahid has hosted a series of roundtables over the past few months to hear from Palestinians across Canada about their experiences — and she said it’s clear that anti-Palestinian racism “is systemic, deep and existed even before October 7.
She now plans to submit a report to Khera, the minister, on what was discussed. “The goal is to recognize anti-Palestinian racism, define it and have a plan – make recommendations – to combat it,” Zahid said.
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