The Canadian government has adopted anti-racism strategy detailed in an official document titled “Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2022.”
The document includes an official definition of Islamophobia:
“Islamophobia – Includes racism, stereotypes, prejudice, fear or acts of hostility directed towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general. In addition to individual acts of intolerance and racial profiling, Islamophobia can lead to viewing and treating Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level.”
On June 28, 2019 the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), the leading advocacy for Canadian Muslims, commended the Canadian government for officially defining Islamophobia and stressed the need for further consultation on this definition:
“Earlier this week, NCCM attended the launch of the federal government’s anti-racism strategy. We had advocated recently at the Justice Committee that the government should allocate specific funds to support digital literacy in combating online hate. We are happy that the government has integrated our recommendation into their strategy. We are also happy to see a working definition of Islamophobia adopted, which, as per our recommendation, was based on the Ontario Human Rights Commission definition. However, we stress the need for further consultation on this definition, and we are of the view that this must be considered only as a working definition until the government engages in robust consultation around the definition with affected communities.