Citing the rise of domestic hate groups and hate crimes, Housing, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen said in “for far too long, people in Canada and around the world have experienced unimaginable acts of hatred just for being themselves, and recent figures have shown a rise in reported hate crimes during the first year of the pandemic. It’s time for change. That’s why I want to hear directly from people across Canada as we work on the development of the first ever National Action Plan on Combatting Hate.”
In his March 29 statement, Hussen invited people and organizations who want to participate in the consultations to answer an online questionnaire by April 30, 2022.
The government said it plans to hold a series of roundtables in the coming weeks, which will bring together members of various communities with lived experiences of hate, as well as academics and activists.
The government invited everyone to participate in the consultation, but specifically mentioned First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Black, Asian, Latinx, Arab, Muslim, Jewish and racialized and faith-based communities, as well as newcomers to Canada, women, persons with disabilities and 2SLGBTQQIA+ persons.
According to Statistics Canada in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, police reported 2,669 hate crimes in Canada, up 37 per cent from 2019. “This marks the largest number of police-reported hate crimes since comparable data became available in 2009,” the government said. “In 2020, police-reported hate crimes targeting race or ethnicity almost doubled compared with a year earlier, accounting for the vast majority of the national increase in hate crimes.”
The government said the consultations will build on extensive work of the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat, which has already engaged thousands of Indigenous people, as well as members of racialized and religious minority communities, through such activities as town halls and summits, including the national summits on antisemitism and Islamophobia. More than 400 recommendations were collected to inform the National Action Plan on Combatting Hate and a renewed governmental anti-racism strategy.
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