Tag Archives: Hate crimes

CKMS News – Report and support: Responding to hate motivated incidents in Waterloo with the coalition of Muslim Women

CKMS News – 2023-11-16- Report and support: Responding to hate motivated incidents in Waterloo with the coalition of Muslim Women

by: dan kellar

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.

 

CKMS News – 2023-11-10 – City of Waterloo develops a new hate incident reporting guide

CKMS News – 2023-11-10 – City of Waterloo develops hate incident reporting guide

by: dan kellar

Waterloo – As hate crimes and incidents of discriminatory hate have surged in Canada over the past several years, Waterloo Region has not been immune to the ugly trend, seeing the highest ever level of incidents in 2021 and then 2022.  As part of a response to these increases, the City of  Waterloo has developed a new guide to “support residents in navigating and reporting local incidents of hate and discrimination.”  The new resource “offers clear instructions on where to file a report and outlines what to expect throughout the process.”

In this show, we speak with Julie Legg, the Supervisor of Neighbourhood Services for the City of Waterloo, and Paulina Rodriguez, the Anti-Racism and Social Justice Advocate, also for the City of Waterloo.  The interview explores the development of the hate incident reporting guide, the importance of reporting hate incidents, and how this guide helps further the City of Waterloo’s inclusion and diversity initiatives, and create a city where as Julie Legg says “Hate isn’t welcome”.  

This new guide from the City of Waterloo was a collaboration which included community partners Community Justice Initiatives, and Coalition of Muslim Women of Kitchener Waterloo, as well as the regional police services.

In 2022, according to Statistic Canada, police-reported hate crime incidents in Waterloo Region doubled to 144 events  This represents  22.7 incidents per 100,000 of population compared to 6.7 per 100,000 in 2017 or 2.5 per 100,000 in 2018. In Canada, hate crimes rose 38% in 2021 from 2020, reaching 3358 incidents, and in 2022 surged even higher, with 3,576 hate crime incidents being reported.  That is on average 9.2 hate crime incidents per year per 100,000 of population.

As the Coalition of Muslim Women of Kitchener-Waterloo reported in their 2022 Snap Shot of Hate in Waterloo Region, only 10 of 97 incidents that were reported to them were ever reported to the police, suggesting that the police-reported numbers of hate incidents and hate crimes may be significantly lower than the actual number of these incidents that take place in the region.  

The new guide from the city, includes details on alternatives to reporting hate motivated incidents to the police, such as the reportinghate.ca website run by the Coalition of Muslim women of Kitchener-Waterloo.  According to Paulina Rodriguez from the City of Waterloo, these reporting alternatives are highlighted in an effort to support community members, and “meet people where they are at, where they feel most comfortable”.

 

CKMS News – 2023-07-02 – Community Grieves after Three People Stabbed at the University of Waterloo

Listen: 2023-07-02 – Campus grieves for stabbing victims

By: M.P. Holmes

Twenty four hours after three people were stabbed in a classroom, the University of Waterloo and the wider community came together in two separate rallies to show solidarity and support . University President Vivek Goel and the Dean of Arts Sheila Ager offered support and encouraged those impacted by the event to seek counseling and focus on healing by taking a step back from work or studies if they felt the need to do so.

After the University’s gathering, another rally, organised at by students and community members, began at Hagey Hall. This gathering gave people an additional opportunity to speak on what happened, show support, and consider where to go from here.

Around 4pm on June 28th, Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, A 24-year-old former international student has been charged in the stabbings . Villalba-Aleman is charged with three counts of aggravated assault, four accounts of assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and mischief under $5,000.

Community members have been vocal and quick to point out the lack of any notification from the WatSafe app, an app developed by the UW and intended to, among other things, inform community members about major campus emergencies.

This show features a variety of voices from those attending the events.

A crowd of folks with signs at the gathering in response the stabbings at UW. The signs read "All genders deserve safety", "Protect Trans Kids", "CIS is Not a Slur", "No More Shit", "We Deserve to feel safe", "misogyny is an Epidemic", "UC and UW Against Hate", and "This is why we need PRIDE".
After the University’s gathering, another rally began at Hagey Hall, which gave people an additional opportunity to speak on what happened, show support and consider where to go from here.
Photo: M.P. Holmes

The music on this show is called “Documentary Intro” by MUSIC4VIDEO courtesy of the Music for Video Library on YouTube.

This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, Heritage Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.

Check out the archived versions of this program on radiowaterloo.ca/news, and listen to all the LJI content at canada-info.ca.


If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca