Executive summary

Background

This report presents the results of an in-depth, qualitative study on serious legal problems faced by Muslims engaged for this study in London and Toronto, Ontario. The main goals of this study were to better understand:

  1. The wide range of serious legal problems that some Muslims in these two cities face;
  2. The strategies that some Muslims from Toronto and London use to resolve their serious legal problems, including whether and to what extent they engage with the Canadian legal system; and
  3. The consequences that some Muslims experience because of the serious legal problems that they face in Canada.

Method

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 Muslim adults who had faced one or more serious legal problems in London or Toronto, Ontario in the past three years. Participants were recruited using flyers distributed in hardcopy and digital formats through a diversity of channels. Participants were interviewed online in mid-to-late 2024, with interviews lasting approximately 1.5 hours. Interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis, applying a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) approach.

Because of the small sample size and snowball sampling approach, the findings cannot be generalized, and this is a limitation of the study overall. Regardless, the findings provide rich, narrative detail on the serious legal problems experienced by these individuals and insight into the challenges that some Muslims in London and Toronto have faced while trying to resolve these problems.

Results

Participants experienced serious legal problems across the following six thematic categories (listed from most to least frequent): Islamophobia, discrimination, and harassment; family issues; housing issues; difficulties with navigating Canadian systems and services; employment issues; and financial fraud. Since reported problems often bridged multiple domains of daily life, these categories are exhaustive but not mutually exclusive. Underscoring the utility of a GBA+ approach to data analysis, many of the serious legal problems that the Muslim participants reported also intersected meaningfully with other aspects of their identity (e.g., gender, cultural background, etc.) and/or personal circumstances (e.g., immigration status, financial situation, etc.).

Most participants expressed a great deal of initial uncertainty regarding how to solve their serious legal problems. To navigate this uncertainty, participants often turned to online resources, social networks, and formal organizations and groups within the local community. While participants highly valued the support that they received from others, this support alone was generally insufficient to solve their serious problems.

If and when such resources were exhausted, a majority of participants pursued a solution through the formal legal system. Challenges in engaging with the legal system, however, often compounded the serious problems that participants were already facing. In particular, participants reported: a lack of knowledge regarding how the Canadian legal system operates, financial cost barriers, insufficient time to invest in the legal process, fear of potential repercussions, and perceptions of Islamophobia and discrimination. Those participants who opted not to utilize the legal system cited many of the same concerns as discouraging factors, with some participants also citing familial or cultural norms that encouraged alternative modes of resolution.

At the time of their interview, some participants were still trying to resolve their serious problems, whereas other participants had given up entirely due to perceived systemic barriers, emotional fatigue, or cultural considerations. No participants reported that their most serious problem had been completely resolved. These serious problems, along with their lack of resolution, generated a multitude of negative impacts. Participants reported incurring direct and indirect costs, which fostered financial stresses and strains. Additionally, some participants articulated that their experience had led to social isolation, including the deterioration of once-close personal relationships and some degree of alienation from society as a whole. It is, perhaps, unsurprising then that many participants also reported that their physical and/or mental health and well-being were negatively affected by their serious problems.

Conclusions

The findings of this study suggest that some Muslims in Canada face a wide range of serious legal problems and, furthermore, that the prevalence and nature of these problems often intersect with other aspects of their personal identities and circumstances. In trying to solve their serious problems, some Muslims in Canada utilize a variety of strategies and—most often—turn to the formal legal system only as a last resort or opt not to utilize the legal system at all. In addition to facing serious legal problems, some Muslims in Canada report extensive challenges in solving these problems, leading to a variety of negative financial, social, and health consequences.

Recommendations

In order to improve justice for Muslims in Canada, the authors recommend: