Province reveals plan to create hate-crimes unit

The Alberta government is creating a provincial hate-crimes unit with police as part of broad plan to combat racism in the province, Education Minister David Eggen announced Wednesday.

The province is also establishing the government’s first anti-racism advisory council and will award $2 million in grants to small organizations to fight racism.

“We will not stop until we ensure all Albertans are treated with respect and have opportunities to build a prosperous life for themselves and for their families,” Eggen said outside Government House.

The moves are part of a longpromised report on racism in Alberta.

Following a January 2017 attack on a Quebec mosque, in which a gunman killed six people and injured six others, Premier Rachel Notley tasked Eggen to meet with cultural groups across Alberta and make recommendations to stem a growing number of hate crimes reported to Alberta police.

Eggen met with more than 100 groups across Alberta, and 1,900 people completed an online survey.

He saw parents cry while explaining how strangers were hostile to their children because of the colour of their skin.

Tackling racism is urgent given Alberta’s increasingly diverse population, Eggen said. More than a third of Albertans were born outside Canada, and the province’s Indigenous population is growing 50 per cent faster than the general population.

The government will immediately create its first anti-racism advisory council with an estimated cost of $150,000 per year — a group of 25 people who will give suggestions on removing systemic and language barriers and improving relationships with police.

Government will also accept grant applications this summer from small community organizations working to combat racism, with some grants specifically reserved for Indigenous-led groups. The organizations help improve safety and increase understanding, Eggen’s report says.

With more input, Eggen also wants to:

Create a provincial hate-crimes ■ unit to help police reduce hate propaganda and provide police and Crown prosecutors with specialized training. B.C. and Ontario are the only other provinces with provincial hate crimes units. Edmonton’s police force has operated a local hate crimes unit for years

Give more funding to the existing

■

Alberta Hate Crimes Committee

Update the K-12 school curriculum

■ (which is underway) and give teachers resources, lesson plans and training to teach children about racism

Work with Alberta’s new human

■

rights commissioner to better educate Albertans on their rights

Create a more diverse government

■ workforce by testing hiring practices that remove the candidate’s name (which could give hints about their ethnicity), establishing a phone hotline with anti-racism resources, and distributing charitable funds from gaming revenues more equitably

Put more emphasis on celebrating

■ diversity

Create a “foreign qualification

■

recognition fund” to help employers better assess newcomers’ skills and experience, rather than relying on foreign professional credentials alone. Eggen heard immigrants were frustrated working in entrylevel jobs when their professional credentials weren’t recognized

“It just breaks my heart,” Eggen said, referring to immigrant stories of working jobs well below their levels of education. It’s up to government to show “direction and intent” to improve the situation, he said.

A total cost for the new initiatives wasn’t immediately available.

Steps to improve classroom lessons on racism should have a substantial effect, said Jacquie Aquines, a co-ordinator with Calgary advocacy group Action Dignity.

Canada’s general population needs a better understanding of the history and circumstances of Indigenous people, she said.

“I think there’s a huge lack in understanding and knowledge in who First Nations people are,” she said. “That contributes to a lot of ignorance and racism.

Yazan Haymour, president of the Canadian Arab Friendship Association, said the report makes him feel like the province is on the right track.

“I hope someday we don’t have to have that department — the hate crime department,” he said.

DAVID BLOOM Jacquie Aquines, a co-ordinator with advocacy group Action Dignity, says classroom lessons are needed to create a better understanding of the history and circumstances of Aboriginal people.