The federal government rejected an Ottawa Muslim centre’s application for money to improve the security of its property, one year after it was the target of a hate crime.

The Ottawa police investigated a hate crime in April 2016 at a local Islamic school which was spray-painted with hateful messages. After the incident, the Ahlul-Bayt Centre which runs the private elementary school requested federal funding to upgrade the school’s fence, gates, and doors for better security. But their request was declined.

Each year the Simon Fraser Institute ranks Ontario schools based on their performance on the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) standardized tests for reading, writing and math. Ottawa's Ahlul Bayt Islamic School came in as the second best elementary school in Ottawa and among the top 100 in the province for its Grade 3 and Grade 6 scores from 2012 to 2013. This comes as no surprise to Ahlul Bayt's principal Leila Rahal. “Every year we receive very good results but the Institute only ranks schools that have classes of over 15 students. We don't always have that,” she explained. Mrs. Rahal credits the school's success to strictly following the Canadian curriculum and having the majority of its teachers being graduates of Ontario Teachers' Colleges.