In early December, local imams, along with other faith leaders, attended a workshop at the South Nepean Muslim Community (SNMC) mosque exploring the intersection of mental illness and the law. The workshop was presented by Connecting Ottawa as part of The Spirit of the Law, a provincial project run by Interfaith Initiatives for Civic Engagement (IICE) and funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario. The project aims to work with faith communities to ensure that people living with mental illness who come in to conflict with the law can receive support by ensuring that faith communities and legal professionals are taking a holistic approach to their care.

The Keep Them Warm - Holiday Initiative was started by Jenan Dayfallah, a student at Carleton University. Her many encounters with people concerned about homelessness in our community inspired her to take to social media and create the project. Asking for anyone who wanted to make a difference to join her, the response was outstanding and a group of 15 came together to form Keep Them Warm.

A group of University of Ottawa students created

to raise awareness about the recent terrorist attacks in Mali and Nigeria. Muslim Link interviewed them about why they felt it was important to bring more attention to the reality of terrorism in West Africa. We spoke with the video’s producer Virgille Koffi, and with Halima Moumouni, Aissatou Bah, and Abdoulaye Sow who appear in the video.

After working for three years as a reporter with CBC Ottawa, Pakistani-Canadian Kamil Karamali has returned to his hometown of Vancouver. Muslim Link interviewed Kamil about his career and what advice he has for aspiring journalists.

Nazima Khan, 34, and Riyad Khan, 35, married young in the hopes of starting a family early. Born and raised in Toronto to South Asian parents, Nazima works as a registered nurse in a labour and delivery ward and Riyad works as a teacher. They are the proud parents of three young children. There is very little that distinguishes them from your average Muslim Canadian professional family. Except that they adopted their children from the Children’s Aid Society (CAS).

Ihsaan Gardee is the Executive Director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) based in Ottawa. He was honoured with the Civic Courage Award at Mississauga’s MuslimFest in August of this year for his service to Canada’s Muslim community.

When Korean Canadian Caroline Sohn decided she wanted to leave the corporate world to become her own boss, she discovered Eye Level, a supplementary education franchise developed in South Korea which teaches over 2 million students worldwide. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management’s MBA Program, Caroline has taken up the challenge of opening Ottawa’s first Eye Level Learning Centre, located in Barrhaven.

There has been an increase in hate related incidents in Ottawa reported this October, particularly targeting Muslim women wearing hijab or niqab. The Ottawa Police Service has reached out to the Muslim community and the mainstream media to encourage reporting of these incidents.

Hundreds of Ottawa residents gathered on September 5th to raise awareness about the global refugee crisis and what is seen as the current Canadian government’s ongoing lack of support for refugees.