I am a teenage muslim girl living in Brampton, Ontario. My parents immigrated here and had me, then my brother. For all thirteen and a half years of my life, I have been eating halal. This is a big part of my life because religion is a big part of my life. Eating halal at home is no issue at all because everyone around me eats halal and does not make food that is not. The problem however, arises everywhere other than home. All over the media and on every street, there is American fast food. Things like burgers, fried chicken, pizza, etc. are all over the internet and streets, nobody does not know of these things and live in Brampton. This all seems great since everyone seems to enjoy these foods and there are no complaints… except there is a huge flaw in these restaurants when you think of people like me. There are rarely ever any halal options. Why should so many muslims not get to enjoy the cuisine of the country that they live in? We too, are the citizens, students, employees, and more of this country. Therefore we should be given what everyone else receives. I fight for this because every other muslim like me, deserves to have a big mac once in a while. 

If this petition is successful, there will be so many more people that will be able to enjoy the tastes of American cuisine. Not to mention halal meat is of very high quality so other people will be benefiting as well. Sales for all fast food restaurants will go up which will of course, help the economy. It will also bring more attention to the ignorance of the food industry when it comes to people with dietary restrictions. This includes religious restrictions like halal and kosher or personal life restrictions like veganism or pescetarianism. It will give an opening for those people to start speaking up and get their dietary restrictions accounted for. If this petition is not successful at all, then I suppose things will remain the way they are now, until someone with more influence than me steps up. Only having certain traditional fast food places to fall back on should not be the reality for any group of people.

In summary, this issue affects at least 10,000 people that live in the community of Brampton and I am sure a lot of them are just as fed up as me of seeing these foods everywhere that we could very well have if they just ordered meat from a halal source. The only options should not be rice, curry, and shawarmas. We should also get burgers, fried chicken, and hot dogs. This will do nothing but benefit everyone that will be involved, so there is no reason to not fight for this change. Please consider this petition and help me bring a whole new world of flavours to the muslim community and beyond.