Cabinet’s $191,000-a-year Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia insists she had no correspondence with the Muslim Association of Canada, despite being photographed at the group’s June 6 conference where its chair accused Israel of committing genocide.“No records exist,” Amira Elghawaby’s office said in response to an Access To Information request seeking all communication with the Association following the event.Blacklock's Reporter said at the gathering, Association chair Mourad Mhiri told attendees Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza, citing the deaths of children and widespread suffering. “We must demand that Canada is the voice for self-determination for Palestinians,” Mhiri said..Elghawaby was photographed at the conference alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney and seven Liberal MPs. Carney delivered brief remarks before leaving as protestors shouted “Free Palestine.” Neither he nor Elghawaby commented on the genocide accusation.Carney acknowledged “sadness” over the suffering in Gaza but focused his remarks on combatting hatred toward Muslim Canadians. .Weeks later he reversed Ottawa’s longstanding policy at the United Nations, declaring Canada would recognize Palestine as a state. “The core of the decision is taken on the principle of self-determination,” Carney told reporters July 30.Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, condemned the shift, saying: “We will not sacrifice our very existence by permitting the imposition of a jihadist state on our ancestral homeland.”
