COLLINS: The rage between us just won’t go away

A REPORT THIS WEEK from Statistics Canada shows quite convincingly that despite all our efforts, we have made relatively little progress in combating hate crime. And B.C. is one of the worst provinces.

Hate crimes in B.C. are up 27 per cent in 2021, on top of a 36 per cent rise in 2020. The picture across the country isn’t a whole lot different. Race and ethnicity, religion and gender-related issues are the main causes of hatred. Jews are the most targeted religiously, as they have been for centuries. Anti-Asian hate crimes are up, particularly in larger centres like Toronto.

Much has been done to try and stem this trend. Education has been the major method to try and effect change. Various groups centering on diversity and inclusion have tried to make a difference but most of it has gone for naught. In the U.S., it is even worse. Hate crimes against people of colour lead the way. But in second place are hate crimes involving LGBTQ2S+ issues. As I said earlier, this despite all the work done to try to educate people about the issues.

So what can we do? There are groups in both the U.S. and Canada trying to deal with this. An American group called Human Rights First has laid out a plan. Essentially continuing the education front, it also calling for violators to be held accountable, and clear laws developed to specifically deal with hate crimes.