November is Adoption Awareness Month.  Throughout the month, Children's Aid Societies across Ontario spread the message that every child deserves to have a forever family' in the hopes of encouraging more families to open their homes to children in care.

Mode-ste, Canada’s largest and fastest growing Modest Fashion brand. started a few years ago, when Aicha Chtourou and her mother Hong, a master seamstress, started a small women’s clothier out of their basement in Montreal.

Ginella Massa has made history once again. In January 2015, she became the first hijabi TV news reporter on mainstream Canadian Television. On November 18 2016, she was asked to sit in as news anchor on City TV, where she currently works as a reporter, thus becoming the first hijabi to anchor a newscast in Canada.

Muslim Link interviewed the current chair of Sadaqa Food Bank, Syed Mumtaz Akhtar, about how Ottawa’s only halal food bank is managing with increasing demand.

Royal Canadian Military College Chaplain, Captain (Imam) Ryan Carter, and Ontario Regional Chaplain for Correctional Services Canada, Imam Michael Taylor, worked together to organize a special Muslim Remembrance Day Service on November 6th, to commemorate the service of Muslims in the Canadian military in times of peace and conflict.

Muslim Link interviewed university student Zein Ahmed who is fundraising to support Yemeni refugees to have fled to Djibouti, a small country in the Horn of Africa. She will be visiting them during this Christmas break when she returns to Djibouti to visit family. She hopes to raise $8000 by December 22nd. Check out her GoFundMe Page.

Tens of thousands of Yemeni refugees have sought refuge in Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia, countries which are themselves struggling with food insecurity. Ahmed reflects on the little attention the world has given to the Yemeni crisis, and what she hopes Muslims and other Canadians will do to support her community.

On September 12th, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the Ottawa Muslim Association (OMA) for Eid al Adha prayers. This isn't the first time Ottawa's main mosque has hosted a Prime Minister. Shortly after September 11th, Prime Minister Jean Chrietien visited this mosque offering reassurances to Muslim Canadians in the wake of a dramatic rise in violent Islamophobic incidents in Canada and the US. So, it was fitting that just a day after the 15th Anniversary of September 11th, Prime Minister Trudeau should visit this same mosque. 

On June 15, members of Ottawa’s Muslim communities were invited for an iftar (meal to break the Ramadan fast) on Parliament Hill sponsored by 19 Members of Parliament (MPs) including Ahmed Hussen, Alexandra Mendes, Ali Ehsassi, Arif Virani, Bill Blair, Chandra Arya, Fayçal El-Khoury, Greg Fergus, Iqra Khalid, Majid Jowhari, Marwan Tabbara, Maryam Monsef, Omar Alghabra, Rob Oliphant, Salma Zahid, Shaun Chen, Terry Duguid, Yasmin Ratansi, and Ziad Aboultaif.

The event was co-sponsored by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and Paramount Fine Foods.

Muslim Link’s Publisher Mohammad Dourou and Editor in Chief Chelby Marie Daigle were honoured to be among the over 600 invited guests who gathered at the Sir John A. Macdonald Building.

Serenity Islamic Mental Health Awareness held its first conference from May 20th to 22nd at the Ahlul Bayt Centre and the Carleton University Campus.

Along with tackling an important but often taboo subject within Ottawa’s Muslim communities, mental illness, the conference also marked an unprecedented collaboration between members of Ottawa’s Sunni and Shia communities.

Naheed Khan wants Ottawa’s Muslim community to contact their city councillors and ask that the Ottawa Transit Commission agree to provide a low-income transit pass for Ottawa’s low-income residents.