{"id":86153,"date":"2023-01-27T14:42:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T19:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?p=86153"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:36:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:36:17","slug":"carleton-graduate-appointed-canadas-first-representative-on-combatting-islamophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/2023\/carleton-graduate-appointed-canadas-first-representative-on-combatting-islamophobia\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Graduate Appointed Canada\u2019s First Representative on Combatting Islamophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Carleton Graduate Appointed Canada\u2019s First Representative on Combatting Islamophobia\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By Jena Lynde-Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton University alumna, Amira Elghawaby, has just been appointed as Canada\u2019s first Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Prime Minister Trudeau made the announcement on Jan. 26. <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cThis position is one that came about through the support and advocacy of Muslim communities and their allies to address the painful and even deadly reality of Islamophobia in this country,\u201d said Elghawaby during a press conference on Thursday.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\"Amira
Amira Elghawaby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our hope that we can use this moment to spur a national conversation about the value of Canadian diversity <\/span>\u2014<\/span> including the diversity of Canada\u2019s Muslims communities <\/span>\u2014<\/span> in our collective success as a nation,\u201d Elghawaby said.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elghawaby is a journalist and human rights advocate. She graduated from Carleton\u2019s School of Journalism and Communication in 2001 with <\/span>bachelor’s degree in journalism and law. She started her career as a journalist at CBC Ottawa and has worked at the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the Canadian Labour Congress and served as a Commissioner for the Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression. Currently, Elghawaby is the communications lead for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and a contributing columnist for the <\/span>Toronto Star<\/span><\/i>. <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her time at Carleton, Elghawaby reported on stories she said are often ignored or missed by major news outlets and has made it a priority in her freelance reporting. <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was able to utilize my journalism skills to advocate on behalf of Canadian Muslim communities, and by extension, on behalf of all Canadians,\u201d said Elghawaby, quoted in a 2020 <\/span>Capital Current article<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Elghawaby delivered a <\/span>TEDx Talk<\/span><\/a> in Ottawa about multiculturalism in Canada and she hosts regular workshops on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for a variety of audiences. She sits on the National Security Transparency Advisory Group and is a frequent commentator on EDI for the media.<\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elghawaby\u2019s role as Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia will enable her to serve as an advisor to the federal government on issues pertaining to Islamophobia, racism, discrimination, and religious intolerance. <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the appointment announcement here.<\/span><\/a> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jena Lynde-Smith Carleton University alumna, Amira Elghawaby, has just been appointed as Canada\u2019s first Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Prime Minister Trudeau made the announcement on Jan. 26.    \u201cThis position is one that came about through the support and advocacy of Muslim communities and their allies to address the painful and even deadly reality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":86158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86153"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86198,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86153\/revisions\/86198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}