WARMINGTON: Is Durham Region's hate reporting program just fancy snitch line?

· Toronto Sun

Durham Region has created its own “hate police” department .

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While those on patrol won’t be carrying a badge or a gun, have the power to arrest or charge anyone or have any connection to Durham Regional Police, they seem to be planning to collect, document and store information about residents in the region in their quest to help victims of discrimination or bigotry.

In what is believed to be a first for Canada, Durham Region has set up its own hate enforcement unit that is separate from the police department called the Community-Based Hate Reporting Program.

With it, citizens will be able to tell on each other when they feel there is hate involved in a situation — and the system will employ “tools” to help people who have been victimized.

“The program offers a secure and confidential online tool where residents can report incidents of hate, even when it doesn’t meet the threshold of a crime. It provides an alternative for those who are unwilling or unable to report directly to the police and there is an option to remain anonymous,” the webpage said.

Funding and cost unclear

It also said that “by working closely with VSDR (Victim Services of Durham Region) , whose expertise, strong foundation and highly trained staff have helped make this program possible, we’re making reporting easier and ensuring meaningful support for those impacted by hate.”

It appears the funding is coming through the region’s taxpayers and the provincial government. As of Tuesday evening, neither Durham Region nor its Chair John Henry have revealed what the budget for the program is or how many people will be staffing it. But a spokesperson said they are working on the Toronto Sun ‘s questions.

This is going to be interesting. Groundbreaking and perhaps landscape-changing, too.

Don’t look now, but Durham Region may just have its own “unofficial collaborator” unit, which informed the Ministry for State Security in communist-run East Germany.

Sometimes calling the authorities on fellow citizens is the appropriate thing to do. But it gets murkier when the government asks people not to call the police, but to call them instead.

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Nothing but a snitch line?

Of course, Durham Region was already concerned that people may have questions and posted some answers on its webpage.

“Isn’t the Community-Based Hate Reporting tool just a snitch line?” the headline on their webpage says.

Their answer: “The Community Based-Hate Reporting online reporting tool is not a snitch line … (but) an online platform designed to empower individuals to report hate incidents and provide an alternative for those who are unwilling or unable to report directly to the police. Submissions are handled confidentially by Victim Services of Durham Region, who can provide post-incident, trauma-informed support. The aim is to support individuals who have experienced or witnessed hate and improve community response.”

Why not just call the police if you see or experience hate?

Their explanation: “Its purpose is to assist individuals who have experienced hateful incidents by providing trauma-informed care and improve community response. Police involvement only occurs if the person reporting through this program chooses to involve law enforcement.”

The website also says the “concept of hate can feel different for everyone. What one person experiences as hateful may not feel the same to another.

“However, when it comes to legal standards, Canada uses specific definitions under the Criminal Code: A hate incident is any act motivated by bias, prejudice or hate toward an identifiable group (such as race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status or disability),” the explanation says. “It may include words, actions or behaviours that cause harm, but do not always meet the threshold for a criminal offence.”

What are the limits of its reach?

But could this new program end up getting involved in somebody telling a joke at a comedy show or at a backyard barbecue or step in when a rock band is stretching the line? Or even somebody posting something online that others deem offside?

Could there be Charter of Rights and Freedoms concerns with this new program? Or could asking this kind of thing be deemed hateful and prompt an anonymous complaint for an investigation?

“Combatting hate requires all of us; every single one of us,” Allison Hector-Alexander, the director of the region’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Division, said in a news release, adding the “partnership demonstrates what can be achieved when government, human rights groups, faith organizations and local service providers work hand in hand.”

However, with the program feeling like a potential overreach and working as its own quasi-law enforcement group outside the rules police have to follow and courts test, the public might want to keep an eye on it to see who decides what is discriminatory, what they do with their data, which calls they deem hateful and if anybody gets to oversee and even police them.

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