It's one thing to say that "we love Muslims", but it's another thing to actually show that affection towards them. Since the discovery of Islam by other parties, Muslims have experienced exclusion and discrimination for, simply, just practicing their religion. This doesn't only happen with Muslims, it also happens to people who are "different". But is today's current society doing enough to fight back this hate?
On June 6th, 2021, London Ontario witnessed a violent hate crime against an innocent family doing nothing but taking a stroll with each other. Nathaniel Veltman, a 20 year-old London resident, ran over the family with his truck when they were stopped at a crosswalk killing Yumna Afzaal, 15, Madiha Salman, 44, Talat Afzaal, 74, and Salman Afzaal, 46. The city of London expressed its condolences and its solidarity towards the Afzaal family and the whole Muslim community and strongly promised that no hate crimes will occur from then on. The city of London has stood by the family and all Muslims, with everyone showing love and respect towards all those who were somehow connected to the issue. The city of London also organized walks that held the city to a halt. They started also started the "Our London Family" movement to let everyone know that Canadians stand with all groups that felt that they could also be targets to these attacks.
Is enough being done to combat violence in Canada?
Canada has housed many groups that have faced discrimination. One of those groups is the Japanese-Canadians group, who during World War II, have faced lots of discrimination since Japan was causing global issues. Canadians from all regions of the world have faced discrimination at some point in this country, which for the majority is bad, but the silver lining is that these situations have taught Canadians lessons to stop this hate, and that is evident today. The "Our London Family" movement was the reaction of Canadians to a recent hate-driven calamity. As for the Japanese-Canadians, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney delivered an apology, and the Canadian government announced a compensation package. But these are all responses to violence and hate, but is there evidence that Canada has tried to stop violence and hate from happening?
Has Canada tried to stop hate from happening?
Well, this is quite a delicate topic as Canada can not predict the intentions of those who could commit hate crimes, but the government can stop hate and discrimination emitting from itself, after all, the Japanese hate crimes were mainly driven by the government because of events occurring at that time. As for hate crimes in general, the numbers aren't pointing towards good.
According to Statistics Canada "between 2019 and 2020, the number of police-reported crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity increased 80%, from 884 to 1,594 (Wang and Moreau 2)."
All in all, hate crimes have been decreasing, but have recently started to rise, because from the time period of both World Wars, racial segregation against black communities, and other issues, have decreased from high to low throughout the 20th century. But according to recent censuses, hate crimes against other communities have been climbing, as we've seen with the Afzaal family, and the Quebec mosque shooting, therefore, hate crimes were decreasing, but have recently started to increase.
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