Amira Elghawaby

Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia 

As Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, Ms. Elghawaby serves as a champion, advisor, expert, and representative to support and enhance the federal government’s efforts in the fight against Islamophobia, systemic racism, racial discrimination, and religious intolerance. She promotes awareness of the diverse and intersectional identities of Muslims in Canada and provides advice to the government in the development of inclusive policies, legislative proposals, programs, and regulations that reflect their realities. In so doing, she also helps advance respect for equity, inclusion, and diversity and shines a light on the important contributions of Muslims to our country’s national fabric.

Prior to the appointment, Ms. Elghawaby was a contributing columnist at the Toronto Star and was a frequent media commentator on equity and inclusion, delivering keynote presentations and tailored workshops for a variety of audiences.

Ms. Elghawaby most recently led strategic communications and campaigns at the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.  She also previously worked in Canada’s labour movement in communications and human rights and spent five years promoting the civil liberties of Canadian Muslims at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) between 2012 to 2017. 

Ms. Elghawaby has had an extensive career supporting initiatives to counter hate and to promote inclusion, including as a past founding board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network and past board member at the Silk Road Institute. She has served two terms as a Commissioner on the Public Policy Forum’s Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression.  She currently sits on the National Security Transparency Advisory Group, an independent, arms-length committee that advises the Deputy Minister of Public Safety Canada. 

Ms. Elghawaby was a writer-in-residence at the 2019 Literary Arts Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her 2019 TEDXOttawa talk is titled “Multiculturalism: Worth Defending”.

Ms. Elghawaby obtained an honours degree in Journalism and Law from Carleton University in 2001.