Bahira Abdulsalam PhD PEng د بهيره عبد السلام

1- My platform for the @cityoftoronto is now updated. Comparing with the three other Candidates @oliviachow the incumbent @BradMBradford and @calxandr here is what I found bahira.ca – at Toronto, Ontario

🇨🇦 CANADA, IS THIS WHAT WE HAVE BECOME? Imagine receiving death threats simply because you are Muslim. Not because of something you said. Not because of something you did. Simply because of your faith and who you are. Imagine being a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, facing hatred, discrimination, intimidation, and threats simply for expressing your identity, defending your beliefs, or exercising your constitutional rights. This raises a deeply troubling question: How did we reach a point where Muslims in Canada must fear for their safety, their livelihoods, and their freedom of expression simply because of their religious identity?** Canada has long presented itself as a country of tolerance, diversity, equality, and freedom. But those values mean little if Muslim Canadians are subjected to Islamophobia, hate, excluded from professional opportunities, threatened, or intimidated into silence. Islamophobia is not just a Muslim problem. It is a warning sign for every free society. Today, it is Muslims. Tomorrow, it is Jews who will be next? Toronto's leaders, elected officials, professional regulatory bodies, and public institutions have a responsibility to take Islamophobia seriously, protect vulnerable communities, uphold constitutional freedoms, and ensure that discrimination and hatred have no place in Canadian society. Freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and equality before the law must apply to everyone—not only those whose political opinions are considered acceptable. Standing against injustice, defending Palestinian human rights, or expressing religious convictions should never become grounds for harassment, intimidation, or discrimination. 🇨🇦 Canada, your Muslim community deserves more than sympathy. It deserves safety, dignity, equality, justice, and protection under the law. ☪️ Silence is not an option. We must stand together against Islamophobia, racism, discrimination, and all forms of hatred. What is happening to Canada? Are our constitutional rights being protected equally, or are we witnessing an alarming erosion of the freedoms that define our democracy? Share your thoughts in the comments. #Canada #Toronto #StopIslamophobia #MuslimLivesMatter #StandWithMuslims #FreedomOfExpression #FreedomOfReligion #HumanRights #CanadianCharter #JusticeForAll #EndDiscrimination #IslamophobiaAwareness – at Toronto, Ontario

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10. We educate ourselves before we act. Know which level of government decides what, how bills pass, how budgets are made and where pressure lands. Know your Charter rights and their limits. Check sources before sharing them. An educated community cannot be led astray, by brokers, by misinformation, or by tactics that feel righteous and hand opponents a weapon.

9. We stand at the forefront in defending Palestine. This is a matter of conscience grounded in international law and human dignity, principles that belong to everyone. We stand alongside the Jewish, Christian, labour and student allies already in this movement. Our language stays on states, policies and rights, never on any people. And our economic choices, where we invest, what we buy and which contracts our governments sign, are part of that conscience.

8. We do not live in a bubble. Our leaders must fight for rent, transit, schools and safety for every neighbour, not only on Muslim issues. We belong on school councils, tenant associations, unions, chambers of commerce, professional bodies and hospital boards. Build relationships before a crisis, so solidarity is never a cold call.

7. We bring investment and opportunity to our cities. Canadian Muslims carry languages, family ties and business relationships across the Gulf, Africa, South Asia, Turkey and Southeast Asia. That is an asset Toronto and Canada barely use. We can be the bridge that brings responsible investment, trade and good jobs home, into housing, infrastructure, clean technology, manufacturing and small business. That investment must be transparent, follow Canadian law and benefit every neighbour, with local hiring, fair wages and community benefits in writing. When we help our city grow, we earn a seat at the table that no broker can sell.

But wealth is not the same as leadership. Some of our most successful business owners have chosen to side with the establishment: writing cheques to whoever holds power, posing for photos at fundraisers, and staying silent when their own community is targeted, all to protect a permit, a contract or a tax break. That is not influence. It is self-interest dressed up as access. A system built only on profit will always ask us to trade our principles for a seat near the table, and too many have accepted the trade. Economic power that serves only its owner is just another broker. The same dollars that buy a front-row seat at an establishment fundraiser could train a hundred young organizers or carry one of our own through a nomination race. We need business leaders who use their success to lift workers, fund new leaders and speak up when it costs them something, not ones who sell the community’s voice to keep their own doors open.

6. We build economic power, not just political noise. A community that owns businesses, hires its neighbours and sits on boards is heard long after the campaign ends. We will start and grow businesses, buy from one another, form co-operatives and investment circles, and learn to compete for public contracts on merit. We will build wealth through ethical finance that matches our values, and pass on to our children ownership, not only paycheques. Economic independence is political independence: no one can buy the loyalty of people who do not depend on them.

5. We turn knowledge into skills, and skills into influence. Our community is full of engineers, doctors, pharmacists, accountants, tradespeople, teachers and entrepreneurs. Too many arrive with world-class credentials and end up underemployed, because foreign experience goes unrecognized and professional networks stay closed. We will mentor newcomers through licensing, open our workplaces to apprentices and interns, and teach the skills that move a career forward: negotiation, public speaking, financial literacy, digital and technical training, and how government actually works. Every mosque, school and community centre can be a place where knowledge is shared, not only received.