A new city-sponsored ad targeting Islamophobia is stirring up debate online.

The ads have been plastered on bus shelters across the city, with a focus on the downtown core.

In the ads, a white man and a woman wearing a headscarf are facing each other.  

“Go back where you came from,” the ad shows the man saying.

“Where, North York?” the woman replies.

Responding to the ad on social media, many people praised the ad for challenging discrimination.

However some also took aim at it, saying they feel it suggests all white people are racist and that it is insensitive in light of the recent mass shooting in Orlando.

The ads are sponsored by the city and the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), a registered charity that speaks for agencies that serve immigrants.

In a statement, OCASI said the campaign stems from a directive by city council last year to create a campaign “to dispel and prevent rumours and stereotypes that undermine social cohesion and community-building between immigrant and Canadian-born populations” as part of an effort to smooth the integration of new Syrian refugees.

Responding to the debate, OCASI Executive Director Debbie Douglas said the purpose of the campaign is to spark a conversation about discrimination and how we treat people who appear different.

“Immigrants hear this all the time,” Douglas said.

She said the message of the campaign is that “discrimination is real, discrimination happens.”

On a website set up for the campaign, the organization cites a 2016 Environics survey of Muslims in Canada that says 62 per cent of Canadian Muslims worry about discrimination and that 35 per cent report having experienced discrimination or unfair treatment in the past five years.

It also cites figures that say 62 per cent of Muslims of 'totally agree' with the statement that “other cultures have a lot to teach us; contact is enriching.”