Appeal to the Attorney General of Ontario on the issue of Sharia Law:

We wish to state our opposition to the application of Sharia law through Tribunals set up under the Ontario Arbitration Act (1991).

A group of Muslim Canadians is setting up an Islamic Institute of Civil Justice that will work with Tribunals set up under the Ontario Arbitration Act (1991) to resolve civil and personal (family) disputes according to the Sharia for those Muslims choosing to avail of them.

We believe this is a disturbing development that directly contradicts core Canadian values of equality and gender justice and we urge you to intervene in order to prevent the setting up of this parallel system of justice.

The Sharia, commonly understood to be Muslim law, is derived from the Quran and Sunna (the practice of the Prophet Mohammad) and is applied to varying degrees in many Muslim-majority countries.

In most of these countries, the interpretation of Sharia law is both complicated and controversial and so it is applied unevenly. In Pakistan, for example, women's rights lobbying groups and lawyers have resisted the application of Sharia, specially to family and marital disputes as they believe that the secular family Laws of Pakistan make better provision for women than do Sharia laws.

The proposed Tribunal is justified under the Ontario Arbitration Act of 1991 which allows any two consenting parties to enter into arbitration. We believe the use of the above legislation to bring into force a complex code of law based on religious principles such as the Sharia has far reaching consequences that could negate the values of gender justice and equality under law. Further, the fact that parties in such arbitration may participate without fully consenting due to language and cultural barriers as well religious pressure makes it nearly impossible for it to be justified under the said law.

Large numbers of Muslim women in Ontario could be negatively affected by the tribunal as language and/or cultural barriers will force them to accept decisions reached by this Tribunal because:

- they may be unaware and uninformed that they have every right to access the Canadian legal system rather than arbitration under the Sharia

- they may be led to believe that it is their religious duty to accept the decision arrived at by an arbitrator who applies the Sharia to her case

- they may be coerced by family members to apply for arbitration by the Tribunal and to accept its decision

These Muslim women will become truly marginalized if they have no choice but to accept arbitration by the Tribunal. To say that they will have choice in legal matters, or voluntarily accept the Tribunal's decisions, is to be indifferent and negligent towards their vulnerable status. Because of their language and cultural barriers and family status, they are open to exploitation in legal matters generally and more so especially if the person arbitrating in a legal dispute seeks to uphold a system of law with religious sanction.

There is also the issue of credibility of the qualifications of the people appointed as arbitrators under the Islamic Institute. How are they trained and supervised? To whom are they accountable? How are they going to administer justice?

Does the Government of Ontario in the twenty-first century want to relegate its vulnerable female citizens to reliance on a controversial system of law for resolving legal disputes involving marital and family matters?

On the grounds of human rights, equality and gender justice, we urge you to prevent the misuse of the Arbitration Act to set up a parallel system of justice.