Proposals to Combat Antisemitism and Hate
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Briefing Note: Proposals to Combat Antisemitism and Hate
Points to Consider
- Hate crimes in Canada impact the victims, their families, and the entire community.
- Jewish Canadians comprise 1% of the Canadian population yet are the target of 62% of all religiously motivated hate crimes.
- Though Statistics Canada recently reported a 16% decline in hate crime targeting religious groups, hate crime targeting Jewish Canadians increased by 5%.
- The rise of antisemitism is a reliable predictor of dysfunction in society, which is bad for all citizens, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
- As an at-risk group, the Jewish community works with other at-risk communities because we know that hate impacts us all. To fight one form of bigotry, we must fight all forms of bigotry.
The following are policy proposals CIJA is advocating for on both the federal and provincial levels:
Online Hate
The federal government should adopt a national strategy to combat online hate. To be efficient, this strategy / plan should include:
- An independent regulator and regulatory regime so that decisions about what constitutes online hate are impartial. The independence of the regulator is critical to ensure balance between removing hateful content and protecting freedom of expression.
- Definition of hate aligned with Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence and the IHRA working definition on antisemitism. This will ensure a reliable and consistent measure through which to define online hate.
- Ensure that the legislation and regulations compel social media companies to address online harms through an obligation of result, as opposed to an obligation of best effort, and to report imminent and serious threats to law enforcement.
- Penalties for non-compliance. Effective legislation needs enforcement including fines for social media companies for non-compliance.
- Mandate annual progress reports by the Government of Canada on combatting online hate.
- A complaint process which puts the onus on social media companies as the 'first stop' to deal with online harms on their respective platforms.
- Require social media companies to increase transparency on internal policies, procedures, and guidelines, including on how artificial intelligence/algorithms are programmed.
- Monitor and regulate emerging platforms as well as large social media providers, and ensure legislation is flexible enough to capture the current reality of social media and adapt to future technological changes. This includes addressing the status of online video games, apps, and the collection and sharing of data.
Real World Hate
- Increase resources for judges, Crown Attorneys, and law enforcement including for training on how to apply existing laws to effectively address hate.
- Direct Statistics Canada to address the gap in data collection by allocating resources to create a national database of hate crimes where individuals can report online hate incidents.
- Develop directives to guide attorneys general in the exercise of consent required to initiate proceedings under sections 318 and 319(2) of the Criminal Code so that the provisions are applied consistently.
- Establish hate crimes units in every major Canadian city whose members have extensive training in identifying, recording, and investigating hate crimes to meet the needs of victims.
- Ban the display of symbols of hate for the purpose of inciting hate, including both white nationalist symbols (Nazi, Confederate, etc) and the symbols of designated terrorist organizations in Canada (PFLP, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc).
Education
- Require all school boards to provide an annual report to their provincial Ministry of Education that includes depersonalized data on incidents of hate or discrimination. Reports should include the nature of the hate incident and what actions are being taken to address the situation.