Anti-Hate Resources

Anti-Hate Resources

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Hate crimes or activities are intended to make communities and individuals feel unsafe. The City of Kingston is committed to building a community where everyone can be safe, healthy, nourished and welcomed. This page contains resources to help identify and report hate crimes as well as connect communities and individuals with supports, resources, and information.

How to report a hate crime

Kingston’s Jewish, Muslim, 2SLGBTQIA+, Asian, and Black communities have all reported the highest incidence of hate crimes. 

If you feel you have been targeted by a hate crime or activity, you can report it through one of the options.

Emergency

  • Call 911

Non-Emergency

Other non-criminal reporting options

The following Community, Educational Institutions and Provincial and National Organizations provide additional non-criminal reporting options.

Community

Call 211 or visit 211 Ontario to get connected to free legal advice, practical supports, counselling and more.

Educational institutions

Provincial and national organizations

What are hate activities?

Hate activities include many different things but the defining feature is that they are motivated by hatred, bias and/or prejudice against an identifiable group. Perpetrators of hate activities may include individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions. Victims may be reluctant to report hate activities for a variety of reasons, including not recognizing that the motivation was hate; fear of retaliation; embarrassment and humiliation; and/or uncertainty of the criminal justice system response. 

Hate activity can take many forms depending on the intent. These can include:  

  • Acts of violence. 
  • Verbal slurs accompanied by a threat. 
  • Vandalism of ethnic, religious, lesbian, or gay, minority sites. 
  • Sexual assaults. 
  • Intimidation and harassment. 
  • Bomb threats. 
  • Public messages implying that members of an identifiable group are to be despised, scorned, denied respect, and made subject to ill-treatment on the basis of group affiliation. Such messages may include group symbols, slogans or epithets and can be transmitted in many ways (e.g. graffiti, posters, flyers, hate mail, music lyrics, over the telephone, website, and e-mail content, etc.). 

In some cases, a hate activity may also be a separate criminal offence, such as sexual assault or uttering threats.

What is a hate crime?

A hate crime is a term commonly used to describe a group of criminal offences committed against a person or property that are motivated by the suspect or offender’s hatred against an identifiable group that is distinguished by colour, race, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or mental or physical disability. 

The Criminal Code of Canada provides enhanced sentencing powers when a crime is motivated by bias, prejudice or hate. 

Section 718.2 of the Criminal Code states, in part: 

“A court that imposes a sentence shall also take into consideration the following principles: 

(a) a sentence should be increased or reduced to account for any relevant aggravating or mitigating circumstances relating to the offence or the offender, and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing: (i) evidence that the offence was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or any other similar factor.” 

Hate crimes are defined by three different offences: hate propaganda, advocating genocide and public incitement to hatred.

Hate propaganda

Hate propaganda can be any communication used by a person or group which promotes hatred based on colour, nationality or ethnic origin, race, religion and/or sexual orientation.  

The hate propaganda section of the Criminal Code is broken down into two sections: Advocating Genocide and Public Incitement of Hatred.

Advocating genocide

Promoting or advocating genocide is a criminal offence in Canada. Section 318 of the Criminal Code states, in part: “(1) Every person who advocates or promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years.” 

“Genocide” is defined in the Criminal Code as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part any identifiable group, namely, (a) killing members of the group; or (b) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.

Public incitement of hatred

Willfully promoting hate or making public statements intended to incite hate about identifiable groups is considered public incitement of hatred in Canada. Section 319 of the Criminal Code states, in part: 

“(1) Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of 

(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or 

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction. 

Wilful Promotion of Hatred 

(2) Every one who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of 

(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or 

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.” 

Content - RES - Anti-Hate Resources - Resources

The Ontario Human Rights Code – Announced intention to discriminate

Activity captured under this section of the Code may, depending on the specific context, also amount to hate under the Criminal Code. There are resources and support services to help you. 

The Ontario Human Rights Code does not specifically deal with hate activity. However, many hate activities are prohibited through the Code’s section on Announced Intention to Discriminate. 

Section 13(1) of the Ontario Human Rights Code states: 

“A right under Part I is infringed by a person who publishes or displays before the public or causes the publication or display before the public of any notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other similar representation that indicates the intention of the person to infringe a right under Part I or that is intended by the person to incite the infringement of a right under Part I.”

Community resources

There are many community and non-community resources that offer support or assistance to individuals who have experienced hate activities or hate crimes. 

Community groups

Community groups serve as a place to foster interactions that can lead to better connection, belonging, creativity, innovation, empathy and social cohesion. They offer an opportunity to gather, celebrate and enjoy the communities and cultures that make Kingston a vibrant city.   

We will be adding a list of cultural community groups to this page by spring 2024. If you would like to recommend a group to include, please reach out to IIDEA@CityofKingston.ca.  

Newcomers to Kingston can find more info about your new city through these places: 

Counselling and mental health support

Additional resources

Funding to ensure community spaces are safe

Having safer spaces for communities to gather is critical. There are a number of grants available to help. 

Community Standards Bylaw

The Community Standards Bylaw is envisioned as a tool to help make our communities safe, attractive, healthy and enjoyable for everyone.  

Section 8 (1) of the community standard bylaw states: 

“No person will engage in or permit disorderly conduct in a public place by causing a public disturbance, including by using abusive or threatening language, yelling, screaming, shouting, and/or swearing in a manner that is likely to disturb and interfere with the reasonable enjoyment of another person in a public place.”

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