Issue 36.1
Guest Editor: JOHN WINTERDYK
Hate Crime: Exposing an Age-Old Foe
JOHN WINTERDYK, GUEST EDITOR (36.1)
Mount Royal University, Calgary (AB)
Guest Editor Dr. John Winterdyk starts off this special issue on Hate Crime with his article offering a broad overview of hate crime in Canada. Looking back to historical origins of hate as a social construct and raising several points for the readers to ponder as they navigate this special issue, Dr. Winterdyk probes the concept of hate crime in Canada by looking at the history, legislation, and explanations that have surfaced since the 1960s. Framing hate crime as closely related to social justice issues and noting that law changes identify an expanding range of hate crimes, Dr. Winterdyk advises caution as Canada moves forward in constructing the meaning and intent of hate crime.
JOHN WINTERDYK, PhD is a widely recognized national and international scholar, the current English Book Review Editor for CCJA’s Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice and a regular contributor to the Justice Report.
Digitizing Hate: A National Response
LISA SILVER
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary
The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of her student research assistant Saranjit Dhindsa.
Where hateful content is not tolerated in the news media, it seems much more acceptable when it is digitized and delivered through social media on the Internet. This tolerance to online hate content signals a dire need for a cohesive and collaborative national action plan to eradicate the digitizing of hate. Suggesting a multi-disciplinary and international scope for such a plan and suggesting something along the lines of the government’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (NAPEOH), Silver also contends that law reform initiatives around Hate Crime should not merely ban hate content but must provide self-regulation incentives to Internet service providers/users, as well as being Charter compliant and evidence-based to ensure fair, practical and effective laws especially when it comes to online hate. Posting legislation as only part of the solution, Silver also addresses the need for the plan to encompass both legal and social solutions.
Why Is It so Hard to Prosecute Hate Speech?
ALLYSON M. LUNNY
Associate Professor, Law & Society, York University
As indicated by its title, this article explores why there have been so few hate speech convictions in Canada even though laws were enacted starting in 1970. Offering an overview of philosophical debates about freedoms, Dr. Lunny examines the relative impact of repealing the human rights laws in 2013. The article discusses how the legal changes might impose limits on constitutionally protected freedom of expression and several other controversial and related issues. Describing how criminal laws are also limited by the rights to freedom of speech and face jurisdictional challenges concerning hate speech on the internet, the author concludes by suggesting a revisiting of human rights remedies and a regulatory partnership with internet service providers.
Policing of LGBTQ Communities in Canada
ELLEN FAULKNER
Instructor, Institute of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Carleton University, Ottawa (ON)
Even though LGBTQs are the third most likely group targeted for hate-motivated crime in Canada, reports Faulkner, they face significant barriers to good police relations. As a result, they tend to underreport hate crime incidents not only to the police but also to community organizations for fear of homophobic responses. In this vein, Faulkner points out that the issues surrounding hate crimes related to LGBTQs are far-reaching and intrinsically related to social justice. According to Faulkner, the associated risk of secondary victimization upon reporting hate crimes signals a need to explore police as perpetrators of hate-motivated bias in Canada. This issue has been well documented if not resolved in the U.S. Among other recommendations, the author notes the need to develop an education module to sensitize police to the issues facing our communities around anti-LGBTQ violence to increase their capacity to deal with our communities appropriately, thus increasing LGBTQ access to justice.
European Approach to Preventing and Combating Online Hate Speech
KARIN BRUCKMÜLLER & LUKAS LINSER
Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, Austria
Everyone in the virtual world is a potential victim of hate speech, but ethnicity, religion, and LGBTQ status are considered the three primary markers for targets for the EU. With online hate on the rise, the EU has focused on practical prevention, awareness-raising, the involvement of social media platforms, and various new laws to help reverse this trend. The Council Framework Decision was the first concrete step taken by the EU to develop a unified plan across the member states, but there have been problems with compliance. Some member states have made amendments to national criminal codes. Still, disparities in the definitions of offences have proved problematic, and criminal law aims primarily at the most severe hate crime cases. The second step was creating a Code of Conduct involving the owners of social media platforms and aimed at reducing hate speech and carrying out cyclical data collections. Starting with Germany, a few countries have since made it mandatory – punishable by stiff fines – for social media platforms to establish a successful user-reporting system and share reports on their handling of unlawful content in periodic intervals.
Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes in Canada: Racism, Gendered Violence, and Misogyny
GENEVIÈVE MERCIER-DALPHOND & DENISE HELLY
Geneviève Mercier-Dalphond is a PhD candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Denise Helly is a Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
This article, based on the authors’ work supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada – Insight program research grant, briefly outlines the main issues concerning gendered racism and misogyny that arose from 51 semi-structured interviews conducted by the authors. The resulting testimonials evidence recognition of the existence of latent Islamophobia issues being kept alive in Canada. Mercier-Dalphond and Helly point out that institutional factors to systemic racism concerning hate crime violence against Muslims are manifest when the state or judicial processes do not punish violent acts; related problems include victims not receiving proper police attention when seeking justice and a reluctance among security forces and politicians to consider such violent Islamophobia as hate crimes. Since the subject of Canadian white supremacist groups, which are described in this article as posing a real threat in terms of hate crime violence, is beyond the scope of this article, the authors focus mainly on the rich terrain of the gendered, racist nature of anti-Muslim hate crimes in Canada.
Hate Crimes – An Indian Perspective
DIPA DUBE
Law Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Reporting that the citizens of India identify as Indians regardless of religion, caste, class, etc., Dr. Dube notes that prejudices during periods of socio-political fervour have led to clashes, mainly related to religious lines and caste, now termed ‘hate crimes’. Dr. Dube explores the historical genesis of hate crimes in India and focuses on the present-day escalation of hate crimes in contemporary India, especially between Muslims and Hindus, a phenomenon Dr. Dube calls countering hate with hate. Describing how hate crimes propagate seeds of intolerance, thus engendering violence and stifling social cohesiveness and unity, Dr. Dube concludes that the State is responsible for enacting/enforcing effective laws, collecting/disseminating data on hate crimes, and taking preventive steps. In this vein, she warns that “The present political regime also must back its rhetoric with fast action to counter this ongoing dangerous trend before it results in a magnitude of disaffection that compels such violence, which could enkindle terrorism”.
Complexities of Hate Crime on people With Multiple Minority Identities (LGBTQ-POC)
ANNA MOCKLER
BSc Psychology; MSc Social Research, Teesside University
The lines between racial and homophobic motivations for hate crime are blurred, and there is significant evidence to suggest that LGBTQIA2S+ POCs are exposed to dual discrimination and hate because LGBTQIA2S+ identities are considered unnatural (heteronormativity) on the one hand, while racial identities are invisible within mainstream LGBTQIA2S+ discourse (homonormativity) on the other. It is not enough to support LGBTQIA2S+ or POC people when hate crime is involved because race, gender, sexuality, social class, and endless forms of potential difference can also inform the crime. While the western world has, in recent years, made progress in trying to alleviate the effects of the systemic intolerance of difference, efforts have fallen sadly short. This is because different groups always take each step on parallel but separate paths with their own ʻmarginalized identities’ working individually towards similar goals. This recalls Rome’s decree and ideology, ʻdivide and rule’, and the adage of reinventing the wheel.
“Lone Wolf” Assailants in Germany: If They Communicate, They Can Be Traced
MARC HILD
MA student of Criminology (Faculty of Law) at the Ruhr University, Bochum.
I would like to acknowledge the input and support of Thorsten Ulrich, M.Sc. (Criminologist/Lecturer at the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Brühl/Rhineland) in preparing this article.
This article reports on the recent rise of hate crimes by individual offenders (also referred to as “Lone Wolf”) and the extremist cell (the organizational format of “Leaderless Resistance”) in Germany. The author outlines how Germany learned its lessons after dealing unsuccessfully with one extremist cell, the NSU, by undertaking a restructuring and reorganization of Germany‘s security architecture toward increased crime analysis and intelligence-led policing that has led to a reduced incidence of such hate crimes. Noting that the NSU made no communications with the outside world to commit their crime but that that other leaderless groups have been extremely active on social media, Hild concludes that a lone-wolf strategy using a more problem-oriented approach and a focus on detecting social-media communications is key to prevention.
The Role of Hate Speech in Myanmar’s Rohngya Genocide
REBECCA SAHLIN KARLSSON, a practicing lawyer at DER Juridik, Stockholm, Sweden.
Rebecca Sahlin Karlsson reports on the widespread use of hate-speech that led up to the Rohingya genocide carried out by the Myanmar government. By analyzing the UN’s report of this genocide through the lens of the still-relevant social identity theory, the author illustrates how stereotypes created through social group identities can lead to dehumanizaiton and pave the way to genocide. The author‘s study determines that hate speech against the Rohingya people served to wrongly categorize them as illegal immigrants, dark and ugly, ogres, terrorists, extremist, and aggressive criminals, and homogenous rather than unique individuals. She concludes that social media plays an important role in spreading hate messages in ways that mirror the processes predicted by social identity theory and that the use of categorizing, stereotyping, and dehumanizing hate-speech represent warning signs that might help evade the next potential genocide.
Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the Association’s views, but are included to encourage reflection and action on the criminal justice system throughout Canada.