In April, the Hamilton Center for Civic Inclusion will launch an online platform for people to report hate crimes
Community leaders who got together on Tuesday for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said that Hamilton has a long way to go in its fight against racism and hate.
“Today, local community groups and human rights activists are calling for a renewed effort to fight racism and hate in Hamilton,” Lyndon George, executive director of the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre, said outside Hamilton city hall.
“Our message this year is to listen, learn, and act.”
The day remembers when police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a peaceful protest against apartheid laws in 1960 and killed 69 people. The laws said that Black South Africans had to carry passes at all times.
The United Nations says that the theme of the day for 2023 will be “the urgency of fighting racism and racial discrimination 75 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted.”
Hamilton has to deal with his reputation for being mean
Just days after antisemitic and homophobic graffiti was written on a Stoney Creek school, community leaders in Hamilton called for action again.
Hate has been a big problem in the Ontario city for a long time. Statistics Canada says that the city in Ontario had the highest number of hate crimes per person in 2019, 2016, and 2014.
“It says a lot about the culture that is allowed in our society and what we’ve let happen in the city,” said Koubra Haggar, programs manager at the Hamilton Center for Civic Inclusion. “We’ve allowed people to keep hurting racialized people and other people because of who they are” (HCCI).
The number of hate crimes and incidents that happened in Hamilton last year will be released in April, but data shows that 21 hate crimes were reported in 2021, which is more than in 2019, 2018, and 2017 put together.
Police also said there were 108 hate incidents reported, but only 87 of them were crimes. This is a 35% increase from 2020. But the number is about the same as it was in other years.
George said, “We know that these kinds of racism and discrimination often go unreported.”
Last year, almost all hate crimes and incidents in Hamilton were directed at the Black, Jewish, Muslim, and LGBTQ communities.
In 2021, the rise in hate crimes was part of a national trend. Statistics Canada says that there were 3,360 hate crimes in the country in 2018, compared to 2,073 in 2017.
How can you fight racism
Leaders in the community said it is important for people to call out racism when they see it.
George says that people should listen to people who have been treated unfairly, learn about the history of racism and groups that work for change, act by challenging stereotypes, and stand with community groups.
Kim Martin, co-founder of No Hate in the Hammer and executive director of the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton, said that another important way to fight racism is for people to work together to denounce prejudice and promote inclusion.
Community leaders say it’s also important to report hate crimes and incidents.
Ameil Joseph, an associate professor at McMaster University who studies critical race theory, said that the response of the community to hate crimes gives him hope for the future.
The online platform for reporting hate that HCCI and Joseph have been working on will go live next month. Soon, more information will be made public.
Hamilton police also have an online place to “Report a Hate Crime.” But Maria Antelo, a community developer with the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, said that HCCI’s platform can be an alternative for people who don’t feel comfortable going to the police.
“It will give people the confidence to speak up about things that make them feel unsafe… This is a great way for people who really want to speak up and tell their stories to get started “she told me.
“Telling stories has a lot of power.”