About Me
I was Born in Morocco , and came to Canada at the age of 20 to study international economics and communications at Université Laval. During this time, I worked at Quebec City's City Hall, and was a reporter and board director for the local campus radio station, CKRL-FM. In 1989, I moved to Ontario to become a political advisor and then executive assistant to the Minister of Transportation and Francophone Affairs, where I spent four years working on a broad set of policy issues for the provincial government.In 1995, I joined the provincial broadcaster TFO as bureau chief for the Ontario Legislative Assembly. For the next ten years I covered Ontario politics for Ontario’s leading Francophone public affairs program, Panorama. I was also a regular panelist discussing provincial political affairs for CBLA's Metro Morning, and contributed pieces to CBC Radio’s Dispatches, as well as the Moroccan segment of an award-winning documentary on terrorist networks that was co-produced internationally by CBC, the New York Times, and PBS.My work in the area of anti-racism, civil liberties and human rights has included memberships on the Toronto Chief of Police’s Advisory Council and the executive of the National Antiracism Canadian Coalition. I have also made public presentations to the Arar public inquiry, and to federal parliamentary committees examining Bill c36, the anti-terrorism legislation. I have been invited by international organizations, such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to speak on issues related to Islamophobia and hate-crimes.I also served as vice-president of both the l’Association Canadienne Francaise de l’Ontario (ACFO) and the Canadian Media Guild at TV Ontario. I have made presentations to the Heritage Committee on the future of public television, and, as past-president for the French Community Radio in Toronto, led a successful lobbying effort to create CHOQ-FM, the first French-language community radio station in the city.On July 9, 2007, I was chosen by the NDP residents of Etobicoke North as the NDP's provincial candidate in Etobicoke North.
