Already, before the election campaign, the Ontario NDP had presented a bill attacking Islamophobia and white supremacism in Ontario. Three days after Buffalo’s heinous attack, Andrea Horwath’s party on Tuesday reiterated its desire to pass it as soon as possible if it comes to power on June 2.
The legislation was drafted in the wake of the 2021 attack that killed four members of a Muslim family in London. It would create an Ontario Anti-Racism Advisory and Advocacy Council, to ensure students across the province learn in an inclusive and safe school environment, ban supremacist gatherings around Queen’s Park and require prosecutors to look into hate crimes in the province.
During Monday evening’s debate, the Liberal and Green leaders confirmed to Andrea Horwath that they would support the measure. But the New Democrats are unlikely to be able to trust the Progressive Conservatives, who have made no promises in this regard — and who are headed for another majority government, according to the latest polls. When asked about the issue, Doug Ford simply replied that his party “does not tolerate racism, period”.
Either way, it will be impossible to pass such a bill in time for June 6, the first anniversary of the London tragedy. “It’s shameful that the government didn’t consider this file to be important,” said Terence Kernaghan, outgoing New Democrat MP for London North Centre. The Ford government had promised that it would do everything in its power to ensure that the bill was passed, denounces the one who sponsored the legislative text. Instead, he says, the bill “languished” in parliamentary committee.
“New MPs will sit after June 2, and they will make sure that the right bill, which has enough teeth, is passed,” the House leader of the Progressive Conservative government said last April at Queen’s. Park, Paul Calandra.
The blind spot of the Internet
New Democrat Kernaghan says his anti-hate bill would reduce the chances of a crime like the one that rocked his town happening elsewhere in the province. But the legislation would not affect Internet activities: such surveillance is a federal responsibility, he notes.
This would greatly limit its impact, believes former national security analyst Stephanie Carvin. “Many of the activities of those holding these ideologies take place online,” she notes.
Last summer, the Trudeau government introduced a bill — C-36 — to crack down on hate speech on the Internet, but it died on the order paper due to the federal election call. However, a group of experts was formed last March to advise the Minister of Canadian Heritage in his design of a new version of the law; their fourth meeting took place on May 6.
It is especially online that we must act to counter hatred, also thinks Mohammed Hashim, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF). But there’s a limit to what a government can really do in this regard, he says: “When you try to monitor such online activity, it’s like a game of cat and mouse, since people can go elsewhere. »
Hate crimes land more often than not in the flower beds of local and provincial police departments, Hashim notes, but many of them are ill-equipped to analyze these phenomena online. Especially since they do not all deal with the issue in the same way: “Police services have different understandings of hate,” he says.
The CRRF and the National Chiefs of Police Roundtable formed a task force in March to better understand — and better address — hate crimes in the country. Ten police departments are participating, including the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, the Sûreté du Québec and the Toronto Police Service.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.