The Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion and Dr. Ameil Joseph of the school of School Work at McMaster University are working on an independent, user-friendly community based online hate reporting platform to tackle hate on an individual and societal level[1]. This work has been informed by research done in 2019/2020 by students from the Gender Studies and Feminism Research program at McMaster University. The creation of an independent, user-friendly, and multifaceted online reporting system can serve as an inclusive and effective alternative to study and infer the prevalence and patterns of hate-motivated incidents, to underscore the deleterious impact such events have on target communities, and to provide access to and overview of counselling services and other helpful tools to victims/survivors of hate-motivated incidents. To date, 16 participants have contributed through focus groups to assess preliminary needs for a community-based online hate reporting platform. This preliminary research has been conducted in partnership with the Office of Community Engagement at McMaster University. The project will continue with further outreach to engage communities and populations that have not yet had a chance to participate.

The current barometer of assessing hate crime in any community comes from Police department and Statistics Canada reports. In 2019, Hamilton had the highest number of hate crimes per capita in Canada. [2] Further numbers showed that the Black community, the 2SLGBTQ + community and religious communities were impacted the most. Many of these communities also have a mistrust in the Police system; thus many hate crimes go unreported. As such, is it important to create an independent user-friendly community online hate reporting platform that allows residents of Hamilton to create a safe community and give an informed and enhanced picture of the climate of hate in Hamilton.

For more information please contact Kojo Damptey at kdamptey@hcci.ca and Dr. Ameil Joseph at ameilj@mcmaster.ca 

If you would like to contribute funds to this initiative make a donation here https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/8017  (attn Online Hate Platform)