Expanding anti-hate teachings in B.C. schools among 12 recommendations to combat rise in hate crimes

Sweeping recommendations to deal with a rise of hate crimes in B.C. include “significantly” expanding anti-hate teachings in schools, having social media platforms audited to ensure they comply with suggestions to reduce hate content and setting up restorative justice measures geared toward “leading perpetrators of hate and people at risk” away from hateful ideologies and groups.

Also among the recommendations from the office of B.C.’s human rights commissioner are retraining police on hate-crime response and investigations, making it easy for Crown prosecutors to lay charges for hate crimes, offering “guidance on when gender-based violence should be approached as a hate crime” and setting up a centralized system to report hate incidents.

From Hate to Hope, a report into the rise of hate crimes in B.C. during the COVID-19 pandemic was released Tuesday by Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender.

During the pandemic, B.C. saw the “rise of hate and violence” and “we must confront what we experienced during the pandemic and take action now to prevent it from happening again” in future emergencies, the report says.