Hundreds of members of the Muslim community showed up at city hall on Wednesday to protest what they are calling a “discriminatory” zoning by-law, which prohibits religious institutions and faith-based community centres from operating on designated employment lands.
The city declared the Sakinah Community Center on Birchmount Road unsafe last January and ordered that it stop operating as a place of worship until improvements were made.
Officials with the community centre subsequently tried to get the order removed but ran into roadblocks after learning that a 2013 amendment to the zoning code prohibited places of worship and schools from being operated on designated employment lands.
Religious institutions and faith-based schools and community centres that were operating on employment lands prior to the enacting of the by-law were granted an exemption, however the city has said that the Sakinah Community Center did not purchase the property until eight months after the amended by-law went into effect.
“They (the city) will say they are protecting the employment land but we pay over a million dollars in salaries and we hire hundreds of people so we are creating jobs for the community,” Imam Said Rageah told reporters in the rotunda at city hall. “To my right and my left there are self storage buildings that can hire one or two people (and they are permitted). Don’t make it difficult on us.”
Three options available to centre
In a letter sent to Rageah and members of the Sakinah Community Center, Mayor John Tory pointed out that 58 per cent of land in Toronto is still designated to allow places of worship.
Tory also suggested three solutions that would allow the Sakinah Community Center to continue operating. He said that city staff could help the organization find a building where it would be permitted to operate or the community centre could request that their current property be rezoned. Finally, he said that staff could also help the community centre create a social enterprise on the property that would allow it to be located on designated employment land.
Rageah, however, told reporters that the zoning issue will affect more than just the Sakinah Community Centre.
He said that by prohibiting places of worship on employment lands, the city is forcing the operators of such facilities into costlier residential and commercial land.
“The majority of us cannot afford to buy land on residential and commercial; let alone deal with the nightmare of rezoning those places, so mosques, temples and other places of worship can operate,” he said. “We will not have any future. There will be no future for faith-based communities if you force us to move with this bylaw.”
Tory says community centre not being singled out
Tory met with representatives from the Sakinah Community Center two weeks ago and in his letter he told Rageah that he feels as though he has “delivered on the commitment” he made to him at the time.
He said the three options he provided the group would all move the issue towards a resolution. He also promised to work with the Toronto Real Estate Board to ensure that religious institutions are aware of where they can and cannot operate going forward.
“As you will have seen from my public comments in recent days, I am committed to ensure that our residents feel free and secure practicing their religion, especially Toronto’s Muslim community given the terrible events in Quebec City,” Tory wrote. “Our by-laws and regulations must also be fairly applied fairly and evenly across the city. Any suggestion that Sakinah Community Center is being singled out or treated unfairly under the by-law because of your particular faith is wrong.”
Protestors vow to return
Rageah told reporters that members of his faith community will continue to return to city hall until they have a resolution.
That resolution could be far away, though.
Michael Thompson, the councillor for the area where the Sakinah Community Center is located, said that the city “won’t be intimidated” and won’t “bend the rules."
Thompson did say that the city would be “delighted” to work with the community centre on another solution.
“Employment areas ought to be protected,” he said. “There is manufacturing development taking in place in that particular area and we want to protect that.”
