With a key by-election in Montreal just weeks away, a meeting between Quebec’s Muslim leaders and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau planned for this afternoon north of Montreal has been canceled after many of those invited declined to attend, CBC News reports.
“Many members of our community continue to feel angry and frustrated with the government, which they see as not acting in good faith regarding what is happening in Gaza or in addressing the surge in Islamophobia in Canada,” the National Council of Canadian Muslims told CBC News in a media statement.
“Our community is not monolithic, but this sentiment is widespread.”
It is unclear how many people were invited to the event, but the NCCM said “a number of invited members, including leaders and imams, declined to meet.”
Two members of Quebec’s Muslim community who spoke to CBC News said the invitation was sent verbally by the office of Feisal El Khoury, the Member of Parliament for Laval-lès-Île-de-Rhône.
Guests were asked to travel to the reception venue, Chateau Royal, in Laval, Quebec, and meet with Prime Minister Trudeau at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Many of those invited declined to attend, and pro-Palestinian protesters appeared in front of the hall instead.
Laval police spokesperson Stephanie Beshara said officers were called to the scene and were able to disperse the peaceful crowd. Police confirmed that a meeting with Trudeau scheduled for the hall had been canceled and notified protesters, Beshara said.
In a media statement, Downing Street declined to comment on whether the prime minister would attend the meeting.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Trudeau “has always been, and will always be, [having] Difficult and important discussions regarding the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.”
Trudeau’s official schedule on Wednesday included a visit to Gatineau, Quebec, where he posed for a photo op with seniors about public dental care.
The Liberal Party referred questions to the Prime Minister’s Office. Faisal El Khoury’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Imam Hassan Guillet, who was invited to the Laval meeting but did not plan to attend, called it a “charm operation” aimed at the Muslim community.
“The Muslim community is very upset about what is happening in Gaza,” Guillet said.
“The government is unwilling to take a stand that is consistent with Canadian values and uphold international law and human life. The community is extremely upset.”
The Trudeau government has called for a humanitarian ceasefire in the bloody conflict between the Israeli government and Hamas.
In March, the Liberals also helped pass a watered-down version of an NDP motion calling for an arms embargo on Israel and eventual recognition of a Palestinian state.
Guillet was due to run for the 2019 general election as a candidate for the Liberal Party, but the party withdrew his candidacy after Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith alleged he had praised pro-Hamas activists.
Trudeau’s attempt at reconciliation with Montreal-area Muslims comes just weeks before a federal by-election in the city’s LaSalle-Emard-Verdun constituency, the seat left vacant last year when former Justice Minister David Lametti was fired from cabinet and retired from politics.
Montreal is typically a Liberal stronghold, but both the New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois say the district is competitive.
Trudeau has faced low approval ratings nationwide for more than a year, and at least one survey shows he is losing support among both Muslims and Jews over the Middle East conflict.
The government’s handling of the issue has led major Muslim donors to threaten to abandon the Liberal party, and Canadian mosques also published an open letter last spring imposing conditions on the party’s lawmakers who visit mosques during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
About five per cent of LaSalle-Emaar-Verdun residents identify as Muslim, according to the 2021 Statistics Canada census.
