Racist incidents happen ‘over and over again,’ activists say after tirade goes viral

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Vincent Estick and Sobia Shaikh of the Anti-Racism Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador want law enforcement and local leaders to do more to address racist incidents in the province. (Darrell Roberts/CBC)

Leaders of a Newfoundland and Labrador anti-racism group say a viral TikTokvideo of a man’s racist and homophobic tirade is just the latest sign that hate-motivated incidents are escalating and more needs to happen to stop them.

Sobia Shaikh, co-chair of the Anti-Racism Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador, told CBC News the video was disturbing, but not surprising.

“These things are happening over and over again,” she said.

According to Statistics Canada, police-reported hate crimes surged nationally in 2020 and 2021. Shaikh pointed to a pattern of attacks targeting racialized people and religious minorities in Newfoundland and Labrador.

A St. John’s mosque has been vandalized, racist slurs and symbols were splattered across a gazebo on a popular walking trail in Conception Bay South, and two Muslim girls were harassed and slapped outside their workplace on Torbay Road.

Vincent Estick, co-chair of the ARC-NL education and training sub-committee, said he wants to see law enforcement and municipal and provincial leaders do more to prevent racism and hate.

“It’s this gradual escalation, if you will, of incidences. It will get to the point where there will be a true, a horrible physical altercation. Does that need to happen?” he asked.

The video posted to TikTokshows a man yelling at people offscreen, making homophobic insults and using the phrase “white power.” It’s not clear when the video was recorded.

The impact of hate

In a pressrelease Wednesday, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said it’s investigating the incident. The RNC also noted that whilethere is no “hate crime” offense under the Criminal Code of Canada, there are offenses under “hate propaganda.”

Shaikh said the statement missed the mark because it focused on the definition of “hate crime” rather than the hatred itself.

“We have to remember that the effects of these crimes, of these acts, are on real people and Black, migrant, Indigenous, racialized people,” she said.

“We really aren’t seeing a lot of understanding of the impacts on our communities and not just racialized communities, but all of Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Shaikh said ARC-NL wants municipalities to develop anti-racist policies and publicly respond to racist incidents when they happen.

Shaikh said the coalition has sent letters and asked for meetings with the mayors of St. John’s, Conception Bay South and Corner Brook.

“The biggest thing that we want to focus on is how to how to determine and stop these negative effects on people’s well-being, overall comfort with living in the province,” she said.

Consequences

Carey Majid, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Commission, said she also wasn’t surprised by the incident but she was still disappointed.

“What has happened in our world that lets people think that they can say whatever they want, whenever they want, however harmful or offensive that it is?”

Majid said Canadian human rights legislation covers free speech, but there are limits.

“There’s always limits, there’s always a balance, and there’s consequences to behavior.”

Carey Majid, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Commission, says law enforcement has several mechanisms to prosecute incidents of hate. (Submitted by Carey Majid)

She said the Criminal Code does have mechanisms to deal with hatred, including under hate propaganda, mischief, public incitement of hate and other areas.

“There’s a lot of different criminal justice sort of ways to deal with these particular issues,” she said.

The Human Rights Commission deals with complaints regarding discrimination and harassment in specific settings, but human rights legislation doesn’t cover all incidents of hatred and harassment, Majid said.

Majid said there are options for people who don’t necessarily want to contact law enforcement.

The Human Rights Commission has established Community Justice Connect, a conflict-resolution service for people who identify as Indigenous, racialized or as part of a religious minority. Majid said the service is meant to help people who have been harmed, provide community education and address systemic issues.

“How can we best help the person who’s been harmed? What can we as a community do to, you know, educate people to change our way of approaching these issues? And how can we address sort of the bigger systemic issues of why is this happening more frequently?”

Majid said the service, which is free, uses trained community facilitators and can be accessed online or by phone.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

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