Regina city councillor Dan Rashovich is denying he purposely shared an email containing Islamophobic messaging with his colleagues. “I wasn’t sharing, I was replying and I wasn’t even replying to that quote,” Rashovich said in an interview with CTV News. Rashovich’s comments come after a recent CBC article reported the councillor for Ward 1 forwarded an email to fellow council members that contained messaging about what is known as the “great replacement,” a conspiracy theory which claims immigrants are attempting to replace a country’s white population. CTV News obtained the emails referenced in the CBC article from the City of Regina. The thread in question is dated between July 6, 2026, and July 16, 2026 — at the same time the Regina City Jamia Masjid’s call to prayer broadcast sparked debate about public displays of faith in the city. Rashovich was among those on city council against allowing the public broadcast. “I believe in freedom of religion,” he said in an interview on July 19, 2026. “I believe people should be able to practice whatever they want. But I think keep it within your church, keep it within your mosque, keep it within the walls of your church.” Unredacted External emails sent to councillors provided by the City of Regina to CTV News were redacted. In the thread, Rashovich responds to a message saying, “You nailed it! This should not allowed. Residents do not need to be preached too publicly with speakers.” Other council members pushed back against the response, referencing some of the contents of the previous messages. “I need to point out exactly what [redacted] said in his message,” said Ward 6 Coun. Victoria Flores. “[Redacted], claiming the mosque is a ‘strategic tactic to expand Islam’ twisting verses from the Quran to claim they are seeking dominance.” Rashovich provided the unredacted messages to CTV News, which were sent to all council members and to Mayor Chad Bachynski. The emails provided by Rashovich do not list the name of the sender. The councillor told CTV News he received permission from the sender to make the emails public, given he removed their name. The sender was in clear opposition to allow the broadcast, despite it being allowed under Regina’s noise bylaws. “By granting this permit, the city favours one group’s expression to the exclusion of others and interferes with the freedom of conscience and belief of non-adherents,” the email to council read. “… These assertions over loudspeakers into public spaces imposes one group’s ideology upon all residents, violating their right to public spaces free from compelled exposure to beliefs they do not share.” Ward 5 Coun. Sarah Turnbull responded to this email outlining Regina’s noise bylaw, human rights obligations and equity. The original sender of the email followed up by disagreeing with Turnbull’s response. “My concern is not with private worship or with the right of Muslims to practice their religion,” the sender wrote. “Every Canadian citizen enjoys that freedom and I support that right. My concern is with government-authorized broadcasting of religious declarations over loudspeakers into public spaces. Residents cannot reasonably avoid hearing those broadcasts in their own neighbourhoods and many object to government facilitating them.” “… You asked which path I believe is the right one, my answer is straightforward: amend the bylaw so amplified religious broadcasts are not permitted for any religion,” they added. It is to this email Rashovich responded, “You nailed it! This should not allowed. Residents do not need to be preached too publicly with speakers.” Rashovich’s response Rashovich says he had not read the first email prior to his response, which he says was only addressing the second email. “We were getting a lot of emails,” he told CTV News. “In this situation, I was on my phone and I was responding to an email, which was the second email.” “You can see it was more focused on amplified religious phrases in the public community that people can’t get away from. It wasn’t about ‘replacement theory,’ which I have no idea what it was — and had no idea what it is — until now,” Rashovich added. The councillor says he could not have shared the email with fellow councillors because it was one they all received. “I responded and said, ‘Oh, I see everything now,’ in the chain on my computer. I don’t agree with that and I said that,” Rashovich said. “I could see where there could be some miscommunication, but it says in the notes I am not responding to the first email: I am not. Explicitly, I say that.” Regina city council made no decision regarding the public broadcast; it was approved by the Regina Police Service on Aug. 7, 2026, after a review of the mosque’s application. According to the mosque, the call is broadcast once per week on Fridays and lasts roughly two to three minutes.
