by: dan kellar Kitchener – Applications for Kitchener’s Racialized and Indigenous Supports for Equity (RISE) Fund are open until May 2nd and the city has already received more applications than in past funding cycles.
Since 2022, the RISE Fund has awarded nearly 250,000$ to 34 organisations. The grants have funded everything from community garden and swim program projects, to film festivals and community feasts, to gendered based violence prevention programs and a project which works to reunite families displaced by conflict in Syria.
CKMS News spoke with Rea Parchment, the senior equity advisor for the City of Kitchener, about the importance of the grant in helping to address inequities, and support opportunities and well-being for Black, Indigenous and racialized community-led organisations.
Waterloo – With the recent release by the city of a new guide to navigate and report incidents of hate and discrimination in Waterloo, the Coalition of Muslim Women Kitchener Waterloo have yet another tool to offer from their growing kit to combat rising incidents of hate and discrimination. The group worked with city staff and other community partners such as the Community Justice Initiatives, as well as the regional police services to create the guide, which highlights the group’s online “Hate or Discrimination Documentation and Reporting Service” which is accessed at reportinghate.ca and receives hate incident and discrimination reports from across the country.
This show features an interview with Sarah Shafiq, the director of programming and services for the Coalition of Muslim Women KW, an organisation which is described on its website as “a small, but mighty group of racialized Muslim women that have been standing up to hate, discrimination, Islamophobia, and gender-based violence since 2010.”
The Interview focuses on the services that the group offers, the partnerships with the city of Waterloo and the regional municipality, and the surge in reports of anti-Semitic, anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic incidents reported in the past month. Shafiq also mentions the feelings of disappointment and fear members of her community are experiencing, bringing up memories of the post 9/11 era of profiling and discrimination.
This recent surge in hate incidents reflects the past several years of data available from both the Coalition of Muslim Women and Statistics Canada. According to statscan, in 2022 police-reported hate crime incidents in Waterloo Region doubled to 144 events, representing 22.7 incidents per 100,000 of population, more than double the national average of 9.3 incidents per 100,000 of population. These numbers add to the 38% increase in hate crimes reported nationally in 2021, compared to 2020 data.
The 2022 Snap Shot of Hate in Waterloo Region produced by the Coalition of Muslim Women shows a wide gap between the number of police reported hate incidents and the number of actual incidents which take place, with only 10 of 97 incidents that were reported to them ever being reported to the police. With the new guide, the online reporting tool, and the other services offered by the Coalition of Muslim Women, Sarah hopes people will be comfortable in reporting incidents of hate and discrimination and be able to access the other services and supports the organisation offers.
This piece features an interview with Township of Wilmot council member Cheryl Gordijk.
Gordijk speaks about the anti-racism rally which took place in Wilmot in early May, as well as the presence of hateful posters plastered around the township recently. After this interview, the person who was allegedly responsible for the posters was ruled out for charges by Waterloo Regional Police.
Gordijk also talks to CKMS about hate-motivated issues in Wilmot over the last year. Mayor Les Armstrong shared a White Lives matter post on Facebook in 2020, hate graffiti was seen in Baden, while the SJAM statue has been a strong source of contention.
The interview took place on June 4 2021.
— This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes onradiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative atcanada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter@RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca
This piece features an interview with Coalition of Muslim Women KW director of programming and services Sarah Shafiq. The interview was on June 22, a little more than two weeks after the murder of four members of a Muslim family in London.
It was determined that the motivation for the attack, by 20-year-old white man Nathaniel Veltman, was hate-motivated.
Shafiq discusses the mission of the coalition, as well as what the organization has done to support the nine-year-old boy who lost the rest of his immediate family.
Shafiq also touches on the importance of allyship and what non-Muslims can do to help combat islamophobia.
— This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes onradiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative atcanada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter@RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca
This episode of the Waterloo Region Weekly Roundup has us planted firmly in Wilmot township. First, we’ll hear from the April 26th Wilmot Council meeting and learn about the First Peoples Group, the Prime Ministers’ Path project, and the discovery of several ‘white lives matter’ posters in the township.
I’ll also share some updates about the Anti-Racism rally held on May 9th at Baden’s Castle Kilbride, in reaction to the discovery of those posters.
This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca
On this week’s show I start with the discussion Wilmot council is once again having regarding Wilmot Mayor Les Armstrong’s Facebook Post that suggested that the Black Lives Matter movement is a hoax.
I’ll share details about that meeting and Council’s reaction to the Integrity Commissioner’s report based on his actions. Kitchener is one step closer to having a downtown cycling grid and I’ll outline some highlights from that committee discussion.
Lastly, I’ll dive into the details of Waterloo council’s recent decisions on equity, diversity, and anti-racism initiatives.
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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca
