Deborah Lyons, left, was appointed antisemitism envoy, and Amira Elghawaby has been serving as the special representative on combatting Islamophobia.The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney is abolishing the roles of Ottawa’s antisemitism and Islamophobia envoys and replacing them with an advisory council aimed at combatting hate and promoting unity.
Both envoy positions were created by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, with the appointees charged with advising the cabinet on combatting hate in Canada.
The most recent Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, resigned in July before serving her full term, saying that the role had become exhausting.
Since then, Jewish groups, including B’nai Brith, have been calling on the Prime Minister’s Office to fill the vacant role to help address a surge in antisemitism.
But others, including in the Jewish community, regard having envoys, each with their own government offices and similar but separate mandates, as divisive.
The Bloc Québécois has been calling for the abolition of the role of Islamophobia envoy, saying it has become an instrument hostile to the identity and values of Quebec.
Marc Miller, Canadian Identity Minister, will oversee the new body, the Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion. It will focus on combatting racism and facilitating greater community collaboration.
The council will include representatives of various communities and faiths such as Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus.
Mr. Miller told reporters Wednesday that he and Mr. Carney are concerned about “how divided we’ve become.”
He said the purpose of the council is to “make sure that we are focusing on the unity of the country” while addressing divisions.
He said the two envoys have played an important role, but expressed concern about polarization, in part because of the war in Gaza.
Scrapping the two envoy roles is not a cost-saving measure, he said, but he acknowledged that some people may be upset by the government’s decision.
The membership of the new advisory council has yet to be determined, but the government said it will include prominent Canadians from academia, as well as experts on combatting hate.
It is not yet clear whether Ms. Lyons or Amira Elghawaby, the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, will serve as members of the council. The Islamophobia envoy still has a few months left in her term, and details of the transition are still being worked out.
Alisson Lévesque, a spokesperson for Mr. Miller, said the new council will build on the work of the two envoys.
“Details regarding the transition of these roles into the new Advisory Council, along with the appointment of experts who will serve on the Council, will be finalized in the coming weeks,” she added in a statement.
Ms. Elghawaby, a former journalist and human-rights advocate, was appointed in 2023. She has spoken openly about facing harassment and Islamophobia herself.
Governor-General Mary Simon awarded her the King Charles III Coronation Medal last year.
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In 2023, several politicians in Quebec called for Ms. Elghawaby’s appointment to be rescinded because of comments she made in a 2019 opinion piece co-written with former Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber.
They cited a Léger opinion poll showing most Quebeckers who held negative views of Islam supported a Quebec bill prohibiting certain public sector employees, including teachers, from wearing religious symbols such as a hijab at work. The article said that the majority of Quebeckers appeared to be swayed by anti-Muslim sentiment. Ms. Elghawaby was a board member with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network when she wrote it.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, in a joint statement Wednesday with Martin Champoux, the party’s critic on secularism, applauded the abolition of the two special envoy posts.
“This was an express demand of the Bloc Québécois in the wake of the controversy surrounding contemptuous remarks against Quebec by Ms. Elghawaby, who said that Quebecers were motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment,” they said.
They said the role of Islamophobia envoy had become an instrument hostile to the identity and values of Quebec. “This post was a clear manifestation of a multiculturalism that confines each community without creating a common identity, contrary to Quebec’s model of national integration.”
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Steven Zhou, spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, expressed gratitude for Ms. Elghawaby’s work but disappointment at the decision to dissolve her role.
He said Islamophobia has been increasing in Canada, adding that “an office dedicated to tackling violent and systemic Islamophobia is needed to address this issue nationally.”
Ms. Lyons, former Canadian ambassador to Israel, was appointed by Mr. Trudeau in 2023 to replace former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler after he retired from the role. She told the Canadian Jewish News after leaving the post that she had quit after spending nearly two years “waking up every day to a fight.”
Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said Mr. Cotler and Ms. Lyons had done “important work.”
But he said “the status quo was untenable.”
“It was clear that with the vacancy in the role there were structural issues in the way it had been set up, and it needed a rethink,” he said.
He said he hoped the new council would take concrete action to address rising antisemitism.
Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy, said the government had “failed to take advantage of its Special Envoy, allowing the position to remain vacant during a crisis of antisemitism.”