MPP

• The NDP’s disciplinary response and the removal of her from caucus cannot be separated from the current climate.
• It is right in the middle of a nationwide Islamophobic backlash, where scores of others are also experiencing a wide range of institutional discipline.
• But this wasn’t enough for the Progressive Conservative government, who put forward a motion the next week to censure her.

Controversy is nothing new

• For Jama, a Black disabled Muslim woman of Somali heritage, controversy is nothing new.
• As Jama has said: “Mak[ing] people feel uncomfortable” has always been part of her work.

Climate of Islamophobia

• To understand this surge, it’s crucial to recognize the influence of the “Islamophobia Industry” in Canada.
• Sociologist Jasmin Zine, a noted authority on Islamophobia, delineates this industry as a conglomerate of media outlets, political figures, far-right, white nationalist groups and Islamophobia influencers and ideologues, among others, fostering an environment where harmful stereotypes of Muslims as innately provocative and violent become commonplace.
• Read more:
  How Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are manufactured through disinformation

  This racialization lumps more than a billion Muslims into an undifferentiated mass, exploited by public discourse that sensationalizes violent narratives, devoid of geopolitical context or history.

Examples of anti-Black Islamophobia

Navigating the multiple forms of jeopardy faced by Black Muslim women means simultaneously surviving both interpersonal and structural anti-Blackness and Islamophobia. Anti-Black, hate-motivated Islamophobia is often directed at women. Here are some examples:
Feminist geographer Délice Mugabo explains: “anti-Black Islamophobia” is the exclusion of Black people from the category of the human and Muslims from the category of the citizen. Consequently, fidelity to the nation, and constitution as a person is readily up for interrogation.

Read more:
CSIS targeting of Canadian Muslims reveals the importance of addressing institutional Islamophobia

The trouble ‘they’ cause

• In practice, this double jeopardy leaves Black Muslim communities suspended, saddled with heightened vulnerabilities, and often erased from dominant discourses surrounding both anti-Blackness and Islamophobia.
• There are few grounds available to provoke so called “trouble.” Trouble is disorder, disturbance, violation of expectations, norms and values.
• As a Black Muslim, you’re already seen as trouble incarnated.

Interconnected liberation

• However, just as oppression is interconnected, so is liberation.
• Jama made her first public appearance at a peace protest this past weekend in Toronto.

Nadiya Nur Ali has received funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). She is also affiliated with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM).

• ReNAgade Therapeutics, a company unlocking the limitless potential for RNA medicines, today announced it will present preclinical data demonstrating novel and proprietary lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based delivery of mRNA to extra-hepatic tissue in a plenary session at the 11th International mRNA Health Conference, being held October 31 to November 2, 2023 in Berlin, Germany.
• “Delivery to extra-hepatic tissue is foundational to our approach, and these data help validate how our diverse LNP library can complement our multi-modal RNA platform to create a robust therapeutic pipeline.
• Proprietary LNP delivery to natural killer (NK) cells was also identified via a high-throughput, functional barcoding screening in NHP models.
• Taken together, potent delivery of ReNAgade’s proprietary LNPs was observed in natural killer cells and several subsets of HSCs over multiple animal models (including NHP and humanized murine models), demonstrating robust LNP delivery of mRNA cargo to extra-hepatic tissue.

• EO2401 is composed of three non-self, microbiome-derived HLA-A2 restricted peptides, designed to activate memory CD8 T cells targeting tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) upregulated in adrenal tumors.
• The data was featured in an oral presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023.
• “We are excited to share positive, updated results from the SPENCER trial at this year’s ESMO Congress,” said Pierre Belichard, Chief Executive Officer of Enterome.
• “EO2401 in combination with nivolumab continues to demonstrate a meaningful anti-tumor activity in patients with adrenal tumors.

• “On behalf of the Council of Wasaga Beach, we could not be more excited about this partnership,” said Mayor Smith.
• This will offer students a dynamic environment for education programming, a resource for research and study, and a hub for education, sport and community engagement.
• This will fill a current facility void in the Wasaga Beach community and help support the growth of a strong arts and culture sector in Wasaga Beach.
• Simcoe County has provided a letter of support to bring much needed child care facilities to the community hub.