Coalition wants to hear from anyone who has witnessed hate incidents

A provincial human rights coalition is asking people who have witnessed or fallen victim to hate incidents to fill out a survey as they continue to gather information on the severity of the issue in Alberta

The Coalition Creating Equity is asking anyone who has seen, been victim to or tried to help a victim of a hate incident to fill out the survey as they work toward creating a provincial response model for hate.

“This provincial initiative is really to support Stop Hate Alberta as well as a number of other initiatives throughout the province but the purpose of this survey is to kind of get an idea of how pervasive is a problem,” said Helen Rusich, a provincial co-ordinator with the coalition.

Alberta Human Rights started funding the coalition after publishing a report in December 2017 identifying gaps and challenges regarding hate incidents in the province.

Rusich said a provincial response would look at how communities and organizations can work together to better deal with these challenges.

That could include an educational component as well as working with law enforcement to respond to hate.

“With all this kind of information gathering the provincial group is going to say, ‘OK, we now have more information, how can we work together to better address the amount of hate incidents and crime and what does it look (like),’” said Rusich.

Rusich said Stop Hate Alberta is a response model that was created following 9/11 but argued it needs to be better funded in order for it to be more effective in dealing with incidents.

“There’s, like I say, lots of different groups doing work but it’s not really co-ordinated,” said Rusich. “When do you call the police? When is it a hate crime? We’re looking at — is it education? Who do you give the education to? Is it the public? Is it service providers? So it’s a lot of different things this survey will again inform.”

The survey will remain open until mid-september.

Earlier this year the Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV) released a report saying Alberta is home to a disproportionate number of extremist movements, identifying six broad categories of violent extremist groups with a current or historical presence in the province.

When is it a hate crime? We’re looking at — is it education? Who do you give the education to? Is it the public? Is it service providers?