Niagara Region weighs diverse opinions on diversity, equity and inclusion committee (St. Catharines Standard)

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news/council/2023/05/10/niagara-region-weighs-diverse-opinions-on-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-committee.html 

Niagara Region weighs diverse opinions on diversity, equity and inclusion committee

Corporate services committee recommends sticking with the current structure for advice

By Bill SawchukStandard Reporter

Wed., May 10, 2023timer2 min. read

There were bound to be some growing pains when Niagara Regioncouncil established its first diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) advisory committee last term.

Wednesday, the Region’s corporate services committee approved staff recommendations for improvement process before the municipality establishes this term’s committee.

The most pressing issue was whether council needs to divide the advisory committee in two: one for anti-racism issues and a second for LGBTQ issues.

Saleh Waziruddin of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association made the case for separate committees.

“A combined DEI committee can’t do all the work needed by anti-racism and 2SLGBTQQIA+ committees,” Waziruddin said. “The committee will have people representing all kinds of diversity and not just experience with racism or 2SLGBTQQIA+ issues.

“This means, for example, that anti-racism recommendations will need to be first approved by people who don’t have the lived experience before they even get to council. It’s an unnecessary barrier to getting the vital advice you’re seeking.”

However, the staff report survey of 14 Ontario municipalities with current or planned DEI advisory committees showed only one municipality, Peel, has the staff to serve multiple diversity-related advisory committees.

The rest have one combined diversity-related advisory committee with subcommittee structures, called action tables, to delve more deeply into pressing concerns.

“The municipality which has multiple committees outside of Niagara has 10 full-time equivalent staff in their DEI office, compared to two DEI related full-time equivalent staff at Niagara Region,” the report said.

The second issue the corporate services committee debated was who would best serve as committee chair — a councillor or a citizen member.

St. Catharines Coun. Laura Ip said she initially believed a citizen should take the chair’s role.

“Based on our procedural bylaw alone, I changed my mind,” Ip said. “The chair manages the meeting, so I felt that we were losing the input of a community member by making them chair.”

Waziruddin said a community member should serve as the chair.

“The work of committees will still come to council for your approval, but the needed leadership will be missing,” Waziruddin said. “Representation does matter, and the way to do that is with a resident as chair.”

Sabrina Hill, a St. Catharines resident, was chair of the DEI advisory committee for part of the last term. She said advisory committees are something Niagara needs.

“From my understanding, the Region used a complex matrix to score each potential member for their various committees and recruited some of the very best residents from across Niagara, and in the end those people did good work,” Hill said.

“Through adversity we found incentive. Through research we found reason, and through diversity we found compromise.

“Speaking from personal experience in the short time I served on two advisory committees in the last term, despite the roadblocks of a pandemic and a shortened term, we as a group of diverse and enthusiastic residents managed to accomplish a lot.”

Bill Sawchuk is a St. Catharines-based reporter with the Standard. Reach him via email: william.sawchuk@niagaradailies.com

Hate incident investigations nearly double in Niagara for second straight year, police report (St. Catharines Standard)

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news/crime/2023/05/04/hate-incident-investigations-nearly-double-in-niagara-for-second-straight-year.html 

Hate incident investigations nearly double in Niagara for second straight year, police report

41 investigations conducted by Niagara Regional Police in 2022, up from 21 a year earlier

By Allan BennerStandard Reporter

Thu., May 4, 2023timer3 min. read

Hate-related investigations by Niagara Regional Police nearly doubled for the second year in a row, likely fuelled by local reaction to international events as well as increasing anti-racism awareness.

According to the NRP’s recently released annual report on hate crimes, 41 investigations were conducted in 2022 — almost doubling the 21 investigations conducted a year earlier.

Only 10 hate incident investigations were conducted in 2020, and 11 in 2019.

Seven criminal charges have been laid so far stemming from the 41 investigations last year.

The report, presented at last week’s police services board meeting, said none of the charges met the threshold to be classified as hate crimes.

However, Saleh Waziruddin from Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association said spray painting the N-word on a school named for a Black freedom fighter and at a Caribbean restaurant ought to have warranted more severe charges, referring to St. Catharines incidents at Harriet Tubman Public School and Caribbean Eatery restaurant on June 11.

Waziruddin said two high school students in Ottawa were charged with public incitement of hatred, mischief and criminal harassment after a similar vandalism incident.

“That wasn’t a problem for Ottawa, why is it a problem here?” he asked. “Here, the police or the Crown is saying it doesn’t meet the threshold, but in Ottawa it did meet the threshold. It doesn’t feel like were being treated fairly here.”

The NRP report, prepared by Staff Sgt. Matthew Hodges from the special investigative services unit, attributed much of the increase to the police service’s Stop Hate Niagara awareness campaign introduced last year summer via social media and through the distribution of pamphlets that encouraged residents to report hate-motivated incidents.

“It will be important to pay close attention to this indicator in the coming years to determine whether hate/bias incidents are increasing in our community, or the public is developing a better understanding and/or an increased level of comfort reporting incidents to police,” the report said.

Although the awareness campaign likely resulted in increased reports of hate incidents, Waziruddin said it falls far short of capturing the full scope of the problem in Niagara.

“There’s still a lot more that aren’t reported. We know that because of the incidents that we see that people are reluctant to report because of fear of escalation,” he said.

Mischief and graffiti targeting the Ukrainian community related to the war in Europe also contributed to the increase.

In June, several homes flying the Ukrainian flag in a show of support of the country defending itself from the Russian invasion were hit by vandals, as police investigated reports of flags being torn down, vandalized vehicles and the letter Z spray painted on driveways.

In at least one instance, a note was left behind written in Russian that made disparaging statements against the Ukrainian people, said Ukrainian Canadian Congress Niagara (UCCN) president Irene Newton.

Since then, however, Newton said reports of vandalism related to the Ukrainian community have all but stopped.

“There may have been a few minor instances that occurred, but it’s been pretty rare,” she said. “People are still flying their flags … but no one has come to us and said it’s happening again, or anything of that nature.”

Hodges’ report said the majority of hate incidents last year were related to mischief and graffiti, while harassment was the second most common offence.

Members of the Black community were most frequently the targets of hate incidents, while among religious group the Jewish community was the most victimized, primarily through graffiti such as swastikas, the report said.

Waziruddin said he was disappointed with the scope of the report presented this year, saying it didn’t include the same level of detail that was available in past years.

Allan Benner is a St. Catharines-based reporter with the Standard. Reach him via email: allan.benner@niagaradailies.com