Central Alberta Community Coalition to target hate-based crimes and incidents

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“This coalition is to fill the gap that exists in our community when it comes to reporting hate-motivated incidents and crimes,” says Sadia Khan, Ubuntu Executive Director. “We will be collaborating with community members, organizations and the RCMP who are mandated in the fight against racism.”

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In Calgary and Edmonton, it’s noted, the police services have dedicated hate crime units and are currently better set up to utilize StopHateAB.ca.

“There is a difference between recording and reporting, in that many of these incidents are reported but not recorded as an incident or crime because central Alberta is still trying to understand why some behaviours are unacceptable. There are many who have attempted to report hate-based crimes or incidents and have been dismissed,” says Dieulita Datus, Ubuntu co-founder.

“The surge in these incidences is a result of people being able to find more agency and their voice to tell their stories. However, there is still not a collective agency to record them, and as such many of these are anecdotal. These are shared in safe spaces within different communities. Anecdotal evidence should not be dismissed or disregarded simply because they are not general recorded data.”

The new project will allow a community like Red Deer to better obtain and retain data on these incidents.

“We felt this was an important initiative in the community not only to develop resources here for those experiencing such incidents, but also so that there is a means of aggregating data related to that for the region,” says Kathy Parsons, Executive Director of the CACLC.

The RCMP will play a vital role as the three groups open a dialogue with other service agencies, and the general public to create this new capacity for reporting hate-crimes.

It’s hoped their efforts will lead to a new support website for these types of incidents.

“The Red Deer RCMP look forward to collaborating on this initiative and continuing to develop relationships with our community,” says Cpl. Mike Evans, Red Deer RCMP Community Policing Unit. “We play an important role in enhancing public safety and ensuring citizens feel welcome and safe in our community through the investigation and prosecution of those who commit hate crimes.”

Updates on this initiative will be shared starting May 3 on Ubuntu’s social media pages.