Amira Elghawaby

Amira Elghawaby is a journalist and human rights advocate. In January 2023, she was appointed as Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia.

Prior to the appointment, Amira was a contributing columnist at the Toronto Star and a frequent media commentator on equity and inclusion and delivers keynote presentations and tailored workshops for a variety of audiences.

Amira most recently led strategic communications and campaigns at the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. She also previously worked in Canada’s labour movement in communications and human rights, spending five years promoting the civil liberties of Canadian Muslims at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) between 2012 to 2017.

Amira has had an extensive career supporting initiatives to counter hate and to promote inclusion, including as a past founding board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network and past board member at the Silk Road Institute. She has served two terms as a Commissioner on the Public Policy Forum’s Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression. She currently sits on the National Security Transparency Advisory Group, an independent, arms-length committee that advises the Deputy Minister of Public Safety Canada.

Amira was a writer-in-residence at the 2019 Literary Arts Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her 2019 TEDX Ottawa talk is titled “Multiculturalism: Worth Defending”.

Amira obtained an honours degree in Journalism and Law from Carleton University in 2001.