A combined $260,000 from the federal government and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) will go towards support services for London's Muslim community.
The announcement came Friday from Kamal Khera, Canada's Minister of Diversity, Inclusion, and Persons with Disabilities, in the midst of the Nathaniel Veltman trial.
Veltman is accused of hitting five members of a local Muslim family with his truck in June 2021. Talat Afzaal, 74, her son Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, and their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah Afzaal were all killed. A now 11-year-old boy was the lone survivor.
"It is often in the face of such tragic events that we realize the power of compassion, of mutual support, and love," Khera said.
She acknowledged the "many difficult weeks, months, and years" the community has faced since Afzaal family's deaths and noted that Veltman's trial "may be re-opening wounds, or increasing feelings of fear and anxiety" as more details are released.
In an effort to support 'Our London Family' the federal government announced $200,000 to London's Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration.
An additional $60,000 of funding was announced from CRRF.
"This is the first time this type of support has been given by any level of government in the aftermath of a mass casualty event," Mohammed Hashim, CRRF's Executive Director said. "We wanted to make sure that we did provide supports and create a measurement framework to understand how many people were impacted? How many people are getting supports? What type of demographics, young children are they getting supports? What type of supports do they need?"
Hashim said he hopes that by getting the answers to these questions and seeing where the gaps in support services are, there will be a metric to work from in case anything ever happens again.
"Two years in and the pain is just as acute and it takes committed, on-going, customized resources and services to support healing," he said.
Amira Elghawaby, Canada's Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, said she first came to London one year after the deaths of the Afzaal family. She added that many young teenagers, who formed the Youth Coalition Combating Islamophobia (YCCI), put all of their fears and pain into planning events around the first anniversary and that once the vigil had ended grief started to really set in.
"By then, donations to support victim support services had run out and those that needed counselling were left with few options," Elghawaby said. "Grief, sadness, fear are feelings that don't follow a time table. It's why today's announcement demonstrates the understanding that communities coping with such a traumatic event require culturally responsive support."
Dr. Mohammed Baobaid, the Executive Director of the Muslim Resource Centre said the money will be put to good use.
It will be put towards one-on-one counselling, community outreach, and creating group therapy programs. He added that supports are also needed for people providing support services.
Baobaid said he hopes that the support model the Muslim Resource Centre is creating can be used to help other communities in the future. "This is not just about - I know today we're talking about Islamophobia, but we're talking about any kind of hate crime, whether it is violence based on discrimination of colour or sexual orientation. I think that there is a lot of things that we can learn from one another. Definitely the cultural integrative model will be something that other communities can benefit from."
Hina Islam, a member of the Afzaal family and a psychotherapist who works with youth in the community, commented on the strength of those moving forward. She said that Yumnah would have graduated high school this year and many of her friends are feeling the loss as they apply to colleges and universities without her.
"They're still moving forward," Islam said. "That takes a lot of strength, a lot of difficult conversations... There's a lot of emotions, a lot of anger, a lot of trauma, a lot of fear and we need support."
Islam expressed her gratitude for the funding, calling it a first step. "This shouldn't end with the trial," she said. "My hope is that at some point we will have a reserve of funds for hate crime. Because the reality is, we live in a world where this will happen again and we need to be prepared."