Thank you. Good morning.
Please allow me to acknowledge that we are gathered here this morning on land held by the Algonquin people who are the original stewards of this territory, which they never ceded. As representatives of over one million Canadians of African descent, many of whom were displaced by the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, the Federation of Black Canadians is of the belief that Canadians must continuously do such land acknowledgment as part of the national reconciliation with indigenous sisters and brothers.
Allow me to begin by thanking the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for inviting me to address you this morning. My name is Dahabo Ahmed Omer, and I'm the stakeholders' lead on the board of directors of the Federation of Black Canadians. I'm here to speak to you in favour of amending the Canadian Human Rights Act. This is to provide legislators, law enforcement and marginalized communities with more effective instruments and mechanisms to stem the explosion of hate crimes and terrorism.
As you're probably aware, there has been a horrendous spike of hate crimes in Canada. Stats Canada just recently released the latest report on police-reported hate crimes in Canada, which shows a 47% increase in reported hate crimes. Black Canadians not only constitute the group most targeted by hate crimes by race and ethnicity, but the recent increase in hate crimes has been largely, although not exclusively, a consequence of more hate crimes targeting people of African descent.
If you're a black Canadian and you happen to be a Muslim and a woman and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, there is an even greater risk of being targeted by hate crimes. This intersectionality of hate is poorly understood and is also a very important part of the equation. Based on the federal government's 2014 “General Social Survey: Canadians' Safety”, we now know that over two-thirds of people targeted by hate crimes do not report them to the police. The most often reported explanation for this is that they get a sense that if they do report the crime to the police, the report will either not be taken seriously or the accused will not be punished.
From a black Canadian perspective of communities suffering from over-policing, carding and other forms of racial profiling, that fear becomes even more heightened. Even right here in the nation's capital, there was recently confusion with the Ottawa Police Service over whether or not the municipality has an actual hate crime unit. This feeds into the perception of law enforcement's indifference.
It is important for the federation to stress that this explosion of hatred that has been described so far actually mirrors the proliferation online. CBC's Marketplace recently revealed a whopping 600% increase in hate speech by Canadians online. We also know that over 300 white supremacist groups are operating in Canada, using the web not only to promote hate and concoct deadly attacks but also to infiltrate our trusted public institutions.
It should therefore come as no surprise that a 2018 Angus Reid poll showed that 40% of Canadians feel that white supremacist attitudes are a cause of great concern.
Hate is currently undermining public safety for marginalized communities such as mine while also threatening national security. This is made clear by a recent report by the military police criminal intelligence section that reveals white supremacist infiltration of the Canadian Forces by paramilitary groups that use the web to recruit and spread hate.
With terrorist attacks on the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec; recent vandalization of black, Muslim, Jewish and Sikh places of worship; and the global context of coordination among white supremacist groups worldwide, more and more Canadians of all backgrounds believe that the time is now for Parliament to act more forcefully and deliberately against hate, which undermines public safety and transnational security.
Canadians expect their Parliament to take stronger action to prevent hate crimes that threaten public safety across the country.
The Federation of Black Canadians is aware that there is a tension between respecting freedom of expression, as protected under section 2(b) of the charter, and regulating hate speech online, as well as the prospect of technical solutions to reporting and monitoring hate speech or designating legitimate source and news sources, yet based on the lived experience of so many people across Canada who look like me, the federation believes that the lack of civil restrictions on dissemination of hate communicated over the Internet, the most prevalent and easily accessible mechanism of public communication, is a matter of grave concern.
The Canadian Human Rights Act stripped of section 13 is not a tool for the 21st century. When one considers that almost all Canadians under the age of 44 communicate online, that's why it's imperative that all political parties and independents come together in the spirit of consensus to restore section 13 of the act, which constitutes the only civil hate speech provision in Canada explicitly protecting Canadians from broadcast hate speech on the Internet.
The burden of proof required by section 319 of the Criminal Code is so high that, in and of itself, it leaves the most vulnerable populations, including black Canadians, subject to the proven harms associated with hate speech without providing a viable mechanism for recourse.
This becomes yet another systemic barrier to the inclusion, well-being and safety of black Canadians, among so many other groups targeted by hate. While the right to freely express oneself is fundamentally essential to a functional democracy—and trust me when I say this, because my country of origin is Somalia—the protection of the minority communities from the real harms associated with hate speech and online hate is demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. It is only when Canadians feel safe, protected and respected within our society that Canada can flourish and advance as a democracy.
Thank you.