Anti-Hate Resources

We are committed to building a community where everyone can be safe, healthy, nourished and welcomed. In recent years, one challenge to that commitment is the spread of hate. Hate activities are intended to make communities and individuals feel unsafe. These acts take many forms can range from micro-aggressions to crimes.

This page contains resources to help you identify, address and report hate activities. It provides information about how to report crimes and also connect you with communities and individuals with supports, resources, and further information.

How to report a hate motivated activity

The most serious form of hate activities are crimes and may result in society’s strongest forms of condemnation available. Kingston’s Jewish, Muslim, 2SLGBTQIA+, Asian, and Black communities have all reported the highest incidence of hate crimes. If you feel you have been targeted by a hate crime or activity, you can report it through one of the options.

Emergency

    • Call 911 immediately or as soon as it is safe

Non-emergency

Reporting non-criminal hateful conduct

Even if a statement or action does not qualify as a crime, help is available. The following Community, Educational Institutions and Provincial and National Organizations provide additional non-criminal reporting options.

The Community Standards Bylaw is envisioned as a tool to help make our communities safe, attractive, healthy and enjoyable for everyone.  Section 8 (1) of the community standard bylaw includes this very general prohibition:

“No person will engage in or permit disorderly conduct in a public place by causing a public disturbance, including by using abusive or threatening language, yelling, screaming, shouting, and/or swearing in a manner that is likely to disturb and interfere with the reasonable enjoyment of another person in a public place.”

If you have witnessed or received hateful treatment that qualifies as disorderly conduct, please contact the municipal bylaw enforcement office at 613- 546-4291 ext. 3135, by email at bylawenforcement@cityofkingston.ca, or visit Bylaw Enforcement for more information.

In addition to contacting the police or the municipal bylaw enforcement office, there are other community resources which may be contacted to assist residents understand their legal rights when encountering hateful conduct.

Call 211 or visit 211 Ontario to get connected to free legal advice, practical supports, counselling and more. 

What are hate based activities?

Hate activities include many different things but the defining feature is that they are motivated by hatred, bias and/or prejudice against an identifiable group. Perpetrators of hate activities may include individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions. Victims may be reluctant to report hate activities for a variety of reasons, including not recognizing that the motivation was hate; fear of retaliation; embarrassment and humiliation; and/or uncertainty of the criminal justice system response.  

Hate activity can take many forms depending on the intent. These can include:  

  • Verbal slurs accompanied by a threat.
  • Vandalism of ethnic, religious, gender-inclusive (affirming spaces for 2SLGBTQ+ community) sites
  • Intimidation and harassment. 
  • Acts of violence.
  • Sexual assaults. 
  • Bomb threats. 
  • Hate activity also includes public messages implying that members of an identifiable group are to be despised, scorned, denied respect, and made subject to ill-treatment on the basis of group affiliation. Such messages may include group symbols, slogans or epithets and can be transmitted in many ways (e.g. graffiti, posters, flyers, hate mail, music lyrics, over the telephone, website, and e-mail content, etc.). 

What is a hate crime? 

A hate crime is a term commonly used to describe a group of criminal offences committed against a person or property that are motivated by the suspect or offender’s hatred against an identifiable group that is distinguished by colour, race, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or mental or physical disability.  

The Criminal Code of Canada provides enhanced sentencing powers when a crime is motivated by bias, prejudice or hate.  

Hate crimes are defined by three different offences: hate propaganda, advocating genocide and public incitement to hatred.

Hate propaganda

Hate propaganda can be any communication used by a person or group which promotes hatred based on colour, nationality or ethnic origin, race, religion and/or sexual orientation. In the Criminal Code, hate propaganda is broken down into two sections.

In the Criminal Code, genocide is defined as acts that are committed with intent to destroy an identifiable group, such as killing members of the group or inflicting conditions of life on the group that are intended to bring about its destruction. Any person who advocates or promotes genocide is guilty of an offense and may be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Willfully promoting hate or making public statements intended to promote hate about identifiable groups is considered public incitement of hatred in Canada. This includes making public statements that are likely to lead to a breach of the peace. 

Community resources to counter hate

There are resources and support services to help those confronted by hate. The following is a list of community and non-community resources that offer support or assistance to individuals who have experienced hate activities or hate crimes. These resources and community groups serve as a means to foster interactions that can lead to better connection, belonging, creativity, innovation, empathy and social cohesion. Groups offer an opportunity to gather, celebrate and enjoy the communities and cultures that make Kingston a vibrant city.

Additional resources related to the responding to hate activities can be found at the following links:

 

Funding to ensure community spaces are safe is critical. There are a number of grants available to help. 

Contact Us

City of Kingston
City Hall
216 Ontario Street
Kingston, ON K7L 2Z3
Canada
contactus@cityofkingston.ca
Phone: 613-546-0000
Fax: 613-546-7816

The City of Kingston acknowledges that we are on the traditional homeland of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat, and thanks these nations for their care and stewardship over this shared land.

Today, the City is committed to working with Indigenous peoples and all residents to pursue a united path of reconciliation.

Learn more about the City's reconciliation initiatives.

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