B.C. developing hotline to report racist incidents

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) — The province has announced a plan to create a dedicated hotline so people in B.C. can report incidents of racism.

The initiative is in its nascent stages — no date has been set for it to be operational, and there’s no estimate of how much it will cost.

Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-Racism initiatives Rachna Singh says the idea came out of community consultation, and another round of feedback will be sought before the plan moves forward.

“People need to talk to somebody. That’s what we were hearing a lot, the need for that safe space where people can talk to somebody, get the resources,” she explains.

“We felt that there is a need to have a dedicated hotline assigned to anti-racism, where people can report in a culturally safe, multilingual way.”

#BCGov says it's creating a racist incident hotline. In a release, it says the hotline is meant to be a multilingual service, not delivered by police, for the purposes of reporting racist incidents, getting support and referrals.

— Ria Renouf ???? (@riarenouf) April 30, 2021

The spike in police-reported anti-Asian hate crimes in Metro Vancouver underscores the need for something like this, according to Singh.

“We have seen the rise in hate crimes, especially in the last year. What we have seen — those are staggering numbers, those are very very concerning,” she says.

“But those are the reported ones, those were reported to the police. There are a lot of incidents that were not even reported because people don’t feel comfortable going to the police to talk about it. We also wanted to be not just focused on one community, but have an anti-racism reporting line, a support line for people for all racialized communities, and Indigenous communities.”

She says the hotline isn’t meant to undermine or deter people from using the police, but it’s an option for those who have decided not to, or are unsure about what to do. Past traumatic experiences with police, language barriers, immigration status, and the feeling that an experience wasn’t serious enough to be reported — all these things can factor into someone’s decision not to call police.

“People who want to report it to the police, please do that,” Singh says.

“If people don’t think that it needs to be reported to the police, but they still want to talk to somebody — that’s when they can call the hotline.”

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Referrals to counselling or other community supports is another thing the hotline will offer, according to Singh.

“A lot of us are able to Google and find out the resources, or have connections within the community to find those resources, but many of us don’t.”

Karmina Cordero, who recently helped organize a Vancouver rally against racism, says this hotline is long overdue.

“I do think, at the end of the day, we have to get started somewhere. It isn’t going to be perfect. It’s going to take some time for people to be aware of this, so there is going to be quite a bit of education in getting people aware of this first and also, being encouraged to use this resource,” she says.

Cardero also thinks it’s a good idea to have something run by the government, saying people don;t always know which community organization to turn to if they don;t want to use the police.

“It’s a lot better for a government. Everyone knows about it and it’s just a place where people can easily search.”

She is also working with the Vancouver Canucks on a social media campaign to raise more awareness about anti-Asian racism.

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In February, Premier John Horgan said the province will be tabling anti-racism legislation. Singh says the data collected through this hotline will help inform that and other government responses.

“The data collected from the hotline will be used to support future anti-racism initiatives, including legislation that will pave the way for race-based data collection. By identifying areas of increased racist incidents through the hotline, government can use the data to inform future actions to combat racism,” says a release from the province.

“Consultations with community stakeholders will inform the racist incident hotline to help ensure it meets the needs of Indigenous, Black and other racialized and faith communities.”

With files from Sonia Aslam