Two sides to hate crime statistics
Alim Nathoo of Kitchener was riding the bus home a few weeks ago, reading a book, when he overheard two men at the back using the racial slur he described as “the N-word.”
“Can you please not use that word?” he said to them. “You’re on public transit.” The men, both white, didn’t stop, so Nathoo went to the bus driver and told him about it.
The men became abusive and started swearing at him. One of them called Nathoo, who is of South Asian descent, a “dumbass N-----.”
Another asked Nathoo, “Do you want to take this outside?”
Nathoo said he felt physically threatened. He’s five feet eight inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. Each of the men was bigger than him, he said. He stood near the driver until they both got off the bus.
Nathoo said the driver didn’t take action against the two men. But he did try to comfort Nathoo by telling him to “consider the source” of the racist remarks.
Nathoo went to Waterloo regional councillors this week to tell that story, and to ask that signs be put up in buses, reminding riders that racist remarks and bullying will not be tolerated.
He received a welcoming response. Eric Gillespie, director of transit services for the Region of Waterloo, said drivers are expected to intervene when an incident happens, and have a button they can use to summon police.
He said the idea of the signs in the buses is a good one, and will “create even greater awareness” for everyone.
This incident helps place into context the recent sobering news that Waterloo Region had the second-highest rate of reported hate crimes in Canada, in 2015.
An example of a hate crime would be threats and violence motivated by hatred of a race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.
It can manifest itself by use of a racial slur, vandalism at a place of worship, or graffiti, which is the most common kind of crime.
In 2015 there were 51 reported hate crimes in Waterloo Region, more than double the 23 that were reported the year before.
We had 9.4 hate crimes per 100,000 population, which is 2 ½ times the national average and the most in Canada after Thunder Bay.
On the face of it, that’s shameful.
But it’s hard to believe that we are all that different from Guelph or Barrie, where police said there wasn’t one single hate crime in all 2015.
Waterloo Regional Police believe our high rate of reporting these crimes doesn’t
mean we’re a more hateful community. Instead, they think it means we don’t just shrug and ignore it when these events occur.
Rather, we feel empowered to complain about it, and we expect something will be done about it.
What happened to that brave young man on the bus that day is both depressing and hopeful.
Depressing, because even in 2017 two men felt it was acceptable to use those racial slurs. Hopeful, because their slurs didn’t go unchallenged.