Canadian Politician Apologizes After Threatened With Lawsuit Over “Defamatory, Hateful, and Islamophobic Rhetoric”

Canadian Anti-Hate Network

Source: Hermes Rivera/Unsplash 

A sitting member of the Ontario legislature took to social media on Wednesday, accusing a fellow party member hoping to run in her riding of spreading “Sharia law.”

In a message posted to the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the representative for Nepean, Lisa MacLeod wrote that “Hey Nepean, if you support Sharia law….next PC candidate could be….” The post then also contained a link to the website of Husien Abu-Rayash, a Muslim man and former military reserve officer running for the Progressive Conservative nomination. 

”It’s deeply disappointing that [MacLeod] has chosen to interfere in Nepean’s nomination process by spreading defamatory, hateful, and Islamophobic rhetoric against me,” Abu-Rayash wrote on X.  “This is unacceptable.”  

He included a picture of a letter he alleges was sent by his lawyer to MacLeod, demanding she remove the post, and issue an apology. 

“I want to apologize for remarks I made in my 7 January X post about Husien Abu-Rayash,” MacLeod wrote on X after deleting her original post. ”While it was not my intention to mislead or hurt anyone, I recognize that my comments were inappropriate. I have been on the receiving end of unfair comments myself and should have done better.”

MacLeod was elected in 2006 and has served as the Ontario minister of children, community and social services and Ontario minister of heritage, sport, tourism and culture industries. She announced in Fall 2024 she would not be seeking reelection. 

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network attempted to reach MacLeod through an email to her constituency office, but did not hear back before time of publication. 

The Far-Right’s Use of “Sharia Law”

Accusing Canadian Muslims of spreading “Sharia law” has been a common refrain among the country’s far-right movements. Sharia refers to a legal system based on interpretations of Islamic teachings. It is practiced in countries such as Egypt and Afghanistan. 

Canada’s far-right movements, when they are talking about “creeping Sharia law,” are suggesting that Canadian Muslims intend to supplant our current legal system with one based on their religious doctrine, and more specifically one which will resemble the laws of oppressive regimes that rule some Muslim majority countries. 

Underlying this conspiracy theory are two quintessentially Islamophobic beliefs. First, Muslims cannot truly be part of a multicultural democracy because they, as a group, will always try to subvert and conquer the countries they live in. Second, Muslims are one group with a unified goal or belief, rather than individuals and many different groups of people originating from many diverse communities.

A great deal of Islamophobia was directed towards Muslim communities after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York City. More recently, in the wake of the 2019 shooting at a Christchurch, New Zealand mosque that left over 50 people dead, the government pushed through M-103, an already proposed non-binding motion to condemn Islamophobia. 

This ignited a storm among Canada’s far-right. 

In practice, M-103 had little to no impact on the laws of the country. According to its critics however, it was the first in a wave of anti-blasphemy laws that heralded the arrival of Sharia in Canada. Many individuals who remain fixtures in Canada’s far-right established themselves during this period. At best, some critics questioned if the motion would impact free expression and at worst, some opponents claimed this was part of a government policy intended to “Islamify” the country—similar to the Eurabia conspiracy, that supposes a plot to replace Europe’s population with Arab immigrants. 

In 2017, Rebel News even went as far as to host a conference at Canada Christian College against the motion. This conference included the since-fired white nationalist anchor Faith Goldy and then-Conservative Party leadership candidate Kellie Leitch—better known for her part in attempting to establish a “Barbaric Cultural Practices” tip line.

Numerous hate groups would form with preventing Islam from taking over Western society as their primary stated motivation. Central to this was a narrative of encroaching “Sharia Law,” the importation of “terrorists,” and a flood of other baseless and incendiary rhetoric that became an unfortunately regular part of the discourse. They took to the streets across Canada. They were often blatant in their hatred for Muslims and Islam.

This includes groups like Act! For Canada, the Northern Guard, Soldiers of Odin, and many more. Some of these groups that focused primarily on Muslims are now defunct, but the far-right landscape in Canada continues to portray Muslims and other non-white and non-European citizens and immigrants as invaders.

A public opinion poll from the Angus Reid Institute in March 2023 found that 39 per cent of Canadians held “unfavorable” views toward Islam. This included over half of the population of the province of Quebec which had 52 per cent of respondents said they had negative views.

Another poll in May 2023 found that 31 per cent of non-Muslim Canadians said that they have “no interest” in being an ally to Muslims in the future and that only 46 per cent of non-Muslim Canadians considered themselves to be an “ally” of the Canadian Muslim community.