by JOHN GEDDES
The global interests the Aga Khan heads—a multi-billion-dollar blend of business, philanthropy and quasi-diplomatic work—are dramatically increasing their presence in Canada. In 2008, the embassy-like Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat opened on Ottawa’s Sussex Drive, at a prestige address not far from Foreign Affairs headquarters. Last spring, Prime Minister Stephen Harper conferred honorary Canadian citizenship on the Aga Khan, who lives in France, at the sod-turning for a sprawling Ismaili cultural complex in Toronto, slated for completion in 2013, which will include a major museum of Islamic art. And earlier this month, the Aga Khan chaired the first board meeting of the Global Centre for Pluralism, a new Ottawa-based research institute, launched with $30 million from the federal government and $40 million from his own Aga Khan Development Network.
All this action has given the Ismailis a bigger Canadian presence than ever before. The history of the community in Canada goes back to Idi Amin’s expulsion of South Asians, many of them Ismaili, from Uganda in 1972. As a long-time friend of Pierre Trudeau, the Aga Khan picked up the phone during the crisis to ask the prime minister to make Canada a safe haven. Trudeau’s government opened the doors. (The Aga Khan was an honorary pallbearer at Trudeau’s funeral in 2000.) About 5,000 Ismailis from Uganda immigrated, followed by a steady flow from other East African countries. They now number about 45,000 in Canada, their success underscored this week by Ismaili Naheed Nenshi’s election as Calgary’s mayor.
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