Christian Cho | Jan 25th, 2022
COVID-19 struck our lives, and it forced us to stay home and limit our daily activities to minimize human-to-human interactions. People lost their jobs, freedom, and their close ones. The frustration of not being able to do anything to change their circumstances made people angry with some resorting to irrational actions to diffuse their helplessness and anger. A portion of those angered individuals directed their anger at Chinese-Canadians and even Asian-Canadians both verbally and physically. This xenophobia and racism peaked as COVID-19 numbers increased due to the flawed and exaggerated claims of the virus originating from East Asia thus all those that resembled East Asians were prosecuted for ruining their livelihoods. A country where multiculturalism and diversity are promoted, Canada has come this far with the work of indigenous people and immigrants from worldwide. Yet, we hear in the news about increasing instances of hate crimes including someone attacking an elderly Asian and calling them derogatory terms (1), a woman wearing a hijab getting attacked and slurred at (2), and that “Black residents are 20 times more likely than a White resident to be shot dead by police in Toronto.”(3)
This article attempts to answer two main questions: How are this country’s constitution and statutes protecting us from these racial discriminations?; And whether the so-called “hate crime law” even exists and, if so, whether the government is charging under those statutes. The Canadian Human Rights Act states that “the prohibited grounds of discrimination are race, national, or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics, disability and conviction for an offence for which a pardon has been granted or in respect of which a record suspension has been ordered.” This Act does prohibit discrimination and protects all of us. However, under this Act, there is no mention of what would happen if there was, in fact, a criminal case of discrimination and the so-called hate law we know does not fall under this category as it only extends to practices of denial of good, service, facility, accommodation, commercial premises or residential accommodation and employment (4). The Canadian government recently took action to protect Canadians against hate speech by introducing amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Youth Criminal Justice Act to combat hate online. (5)
The so-called “hate crime law” in this article is referring to the law that could penalize the convict of hate crime to carry an additional penalty on top of an underlying crime such as a first-degree murder charge or an assault charge. The suspect in the recent attack that killed a Muslim family in London, Ontario, where the suspect had Islamophobic intentions, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. (6) This attack on this Muslim family should have been treated differently than other first-degree murders, as this family was targeted solely because of their race and religion. If the mentioned “hate crime law” did exist, the suspect would have an additional charge and this case would officially be acknowledged as a hate crime. If convicted of a first-degree murder, the convinct will receive life imprionsment, meaning an additional sentence may not be necessary but it will be symbolic in addressing the rising discriminatory behaviours seemingly inherent within our communities. And the result will turn out differently with a case that results with a lesser sentence such as an assault charge. In Canada, there is currently no such charge called “hate crime” where it could potentially penalize suspects further who had motivations and intentions to commit the crime because of race, religion, sexual orientation etc. If our justice system cannot treat a case involving victims of hate crime differently than others, it will take a long time for this society to move forward towards a racism-free society where every person feels safe about who they are in this country.
(1) Robinson, K. (2020, July 22). Suspect charged in alleged hate-crime assault of 92-year-old Asian man in Vancouver. Global News. Retrieved January 23, 2022, from https://globalnews.ca/news/7207968/suspect-charged-in-alleged-hate-crime-assault-of-92-year-old-asian-man-in-vancouver/
(2) Slugoski, K. (2021, May 7). ‘I still can’t believe that is the Alberta I grew up in’: Muslim Canadian shocked by racist attacks. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/7836351/muslim-canadian-racist-attacks-alberta/
(3) DasGupta, N., Shandal, V., Shadd, D., Segal, A., & CivicAction, I. C. W. (2021, January 6). The Pervasive Reality of Anti-Black Racism in Canada. Canada - EN. https://www.bcg.com/en-ca/publications/2020/reality-of-anti-black-racism-in-canada
(4) Branch, Legislative Services. “Consolidated federal laws of Canada, Canadian human rights act”, (20 January 2022), online: Canadian Human Rights Act <https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/h-6/fulltext.html>
(5) Department of Justice Canada. (2021, June 23). Government of Canada takes action to protect Canadians against hate speech and hate crimes. Canada.Ca. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2021/06/government-of-canada-takes-action-to-protect-canadians-against-hate-speech-and-hate-crimes.html
(6) Agence France-Presse. (2021, June 8). Canada PM Justin Trudeau Calls Killing Of Muslim Family “Terrorist Attack.”NDTV.Com. https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/canada-pm-justin-trudeau-calls-killing-of-muslim-family-terrorist-attack-2459501
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