While Queen鈥檚 University, like all Canadian post-secondary institutions, is committed to equity and human rights, there is, sadly, a long history on our campus of what could be considered hate activity.
A look back through the Racism, Oppression and Resistance timeline1 reveals a history of white supremacy and hateful violence at Queen鈥檚 - the following are provided as historical examples and do not capture the full scope of hateful activities on campus:
- Beginning in the late 1800s, a Black Kingston resident athlete who worked for Queen鈥檚 was repeatedly subjected to extreme racist abuse and treated as a team mascot.2
- In 1917, the Senate voted to expel Black medical students and in 1918, they adopted a policy to ban Black students from the School of Medicine. In 1965, Black students were once again admitted to the School of Medicine, however, the ban remained on the university鈥檚 books as an official policy until 2018.
- In the 1940s, Senate openly reviewed proposals to reduce the enrolment of Jewish students at the university as a means of addressing 鈥渢he Jewish problem鈥.3
- In 1991 a Queen's Alum sent a letter to the Jewish Student Society, Hillel, which contained antisemitic sentiments regarding the Jewish presence at Queen's.
- In the early 1990s, a Queen鈥檚 student, one of the few prominent female spokespeople for The Heritage Front, was active in promoting white supremacy on and off campus. (She later defected and became an activist for anti-racism efforts.)4
- In 2006, a banner near the 成人大片 Muslim Student Association (QUMSA) was set on fire and in 2008, QUMSA was once again targeted with a break-in to their club space and a vandalized poster in the JDUC.
- In 2007, a racialized Queen鈥檚 faculty member was forced off an on-campus sidewalk and subjected to racial slurs by four students wearing engineering jackets.
While acknowledging such blatant wrongs, it is important to recognize the many examples throughout our history of students, staff, and faculty uniting to confront and end hateful activities. Community reporting, organizing, and solidarities have led to a number of landmark studies and institutional changes including the report of the Principal鈥檚 Advisory Committee on Race Relations (1989), the establishment of the Human Rights Office (1992), and the creation of the University Council on Anti-Racism and Equity (UCARE) in 2017 and the Yellow House Student Centre for Equity and Inclusion (2019). Queen鈥檚 is not impervious to historical, ideological, and sociopolitical currents that continue to sustain systems of oppression and hateful behaviours. But we can all play a role in challenging hate and promoting safety and respect for all members of our community.
IF YOU SEE IT, REPORT IT
Hate goes beyond offensive, controversial, or hurtful sentiment. Today, hate can look like public statements or graffiti that dehumanize and vilify marginalized groups, vandalism, property destruction, and violence motivated by detestation of marginalized communities.
By reporting incidents of hate, you can contribute to robust data collection on hate activities in our community, to institutional efforts to protect marginalized communities against hate, and to a community legacy of resistance.
If you've directly experienced hate on campus or have additional questions, please contact the Human Rights and Equity Office.
What do we mean by 鈥淗ate鈥, 鈥淗ate Crimes鈥, 鈥淗ate Propaganda鈥, and 鈥淗ate Motivated Incidents鈥?
Hate
Within legal frameworks, hate refers to public actions and language which expose targeted group members to 鈥渧ilification鈥 and 鈥渄etestation.鈥5 Hate, then, is understood to go beyond offensive language, stereotypes and negative attitudes. While offensive attitudes and language are part of larger systems of oppression that reinforce and are reinforced by hateful behaviour, they may not, on their own, rise to the level of 鈥榟ate鈥 as defined by law.
There are important distinctions to make between 鈥渉ate crimes鈥, hate propaganda (hate speech) and 鈥渉ate motivated incidents鈥:
Hate Crime
A 鈥淗ate Crime鈥 can be described as: A criminal offence committed against a person or property that is motivated in whole or in part by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or on any other similar factor.6 The federal government explains further that hate crimes may be directed at physical, symbolic targets (such as a mosque) or at individuals or groups of people.7
Hate Crimes in Canada
Stats Canada findings on police-reported hate crimes8 from 20229:
- Canadian police reported 3,576 hate crimes. This followed two sharp annual increases, resulting in a cumulative rise of 83% from 2019 to 2022.10
- Higher numbers of hate crimes targeting a race or an ethnicity (+12% to 1,950 incidents) and a sexual orientation* (+12% to 491 incidents) accounted for most of the increase in 2022.11
- Incidents targeting the Black population accounted for 57% of the increase in hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity.12
- Hate crimes targeting the Jewish population accounted for 67% of hate crimes targeting a religion.13
- Kingston had the second highest hate crime rate per capita of Canadian cities with a population greater than 100 000, behind Ottawa.14
Canadian Race Relations Foundation notes that the above statistics do not take into account the estimated 80% of hate crimes that go unreported across the country every year15. In Statistics Canada鈥檚 2019 General Social Survey on Canadians鈥 Safety, of the 223 000 criminal incidents perceived to be motivated by hate, only 22% of victims reported the incident(s) to police.16
Major acts of hate in recent Canadian history include:
- an attack on Muslims in the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City in 201717
- a van attack against women on Yonge Street in north Toronto in 201818
- and another attack with a truck that killed four of five members of a Muslim family in London in 2020.19
Hate Propaganda
While the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects a wide range of speech and expression, the Criminal Code contains four hate propaganda offences to protect the public from extreme forms of hate speech20:
- advocating or promoting genocide against an identifiable group;
- inciting hatred against an identifiable group in a public place that is likely to lead to a breach of the peace;
- wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group other than in private conversation;
- wilfully promoting antisemitism by denying, condoning, or downplaying the Holocaust.
Hallmarks of Hate Messages
The types of expression used to expose groups to hatred and contempt were summarized as the Hallmarks of Hate Messages in Warman v. Kouba, 2006 CHRT 50 (CanLII)21:
- The targeted group is portrayed as a powerful menace that is taking control of the major institutions in society and depriving others of their livelihoods, safety, freedom of speech and general well-being.
- The messages use 鈥渢rue stories鈥, news reports, pictures and references from purportedly reputable sources to make negative generalizations about the targeted group.
- The targeted group is portrayed as preying upon children, the aged, the vulnerable, etc.
- The targeted group is blamed for the current problems in society and the world.
- The targeted group is portrayed as dangerous or violent by nature.
- The messages convey the idea that members of the targeted group are devoid of any redeeming qualities and are innately evil.
- The messages communicate the idea that nothing but the banishment, segregation or eradication of this group of people will save others from the harm being done by this group.
- The targeted group is de-humanized through comparisons to and associations with animals, vermin, excrement, and other noxious substances.
- Highly inflammatory and derogatory language is used in the messages to create a tone of extreme hatred and contempt.
- The messages trivialize or celebrate past persecution or tragedy involving members of the targeted group.
- Calls to take violent action against the targeted group.
As the list above demonstrates, the effect of hate speech is to 鈥渄elegitimize or dehumanize the people who are targeted in the eyes of society鈥.22
Hate-motivated incidents
Sometimes extremely hateful words or actions do not, technically, amount to crimes or unlawful activity, but nevertheless contribute to an environment in which hate crime and propaganda can flourish.
A 鈥淗ate-motivated incident鈥 can be described as: A non-criminal action against a person or property that is 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 gender identity or expression or on any other similar factor. For example, derogatory or racial slurs stated during a neighborhood dispute.23
Note: a 鈥渉ate motivated incident鈥 that takes place in the context of an on-campus workplace, service, or living environment may be considered human rights-based harassment or discrimination under Queen鈥檚 Policy.
Online Hate
A growing area of significant concern is online hate which experts believe is a precursor for in-person violent attacks against marginalized communities.24
In 2022, YWCA Canada commissioned a national survey of online hate experienced among women and gender diverse youth aged 16 to 30. The survey results show25:
- Across Canada more than 1 in 4 young women and gender diverse youth have been personally targeted by online hate and 1 in every 2 have witnessed online hate;
- Youth with disabilities are 70 percent more likely to directly experience online hate;
- Youth from 2SLGBTQIA+ and Indigenous communities are about 60 percent more likely to experience online hate;
- Young Black people are 53 percent more likely to be made targets by online hate.
In February 2024, the Government of Canada introduced the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) which proposes changes to the Criminal Code to further address hate crime and hate propaganda in addition to changes to the Canadian Human Rights Act to allow individuals and groups to file complaints against people who post hate speech online.26
Impact of Hate
A CRRF report in 2022 explains how hate impacts not just the targeted individual but the wider community: 鈥淰ictims of hate include but are not limited to those who are the explicit target of the attack. Relatives of the victim, other community members who share the same characteristics as them, and others who have historically faced discrimination are all affected by hate. Their victimization is caused by their membership 鈥 real or perceived 鈥 to an identifiable group like immigrants, members of ethnic, religious and cultural groups or members of the LBGTQ2+ community who are already marginalized or stigmatized and likely to distrust authorities. The psychological impact is greater and research shows hate crime victims report more distress, higher levels of fear, depression and anxiety, and are more likely to see the world as unsafe and dangerous.鈥27
In February 2024, Stats Canada reported that Canadians living in areas with high hate crime rates were less likely to report positive physical and mental health. Specifically, fewer women and racialized people report positive mental health in cities with high hate crime rates.28
Prohibitions against Hate at Queen鈥檚
Depending on the context, hateful behaviour that takes place on campus may be considered a form of harassment.
The Queen鈥檚 Harassment and Discrimination Prevention and Response Policy provides a definition of harassment meant to capture hateful forms of conduct or expression that go beyond the bounds of free expression at a university:
鈥淗arassment by Provocation or Incitement鈥 is a form of Discriminatory Harassment involving public behaviour that exceeds the bounds of free expression or academic freedom as these are understood in University policies5, which incites hatred, contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule of, a person or group of people based on one or more grounds protected by the Ontario or because of a person鈥檚 relationship to, or association or dealings with, such a person or group.
I believe I鈥檝e experienced hate on our campus. What should I do?
We are sorry that you鈥檝e experienced this. We encourage you to make an appointment with a human rights advisor by completing the Client Intake Form. A human rights advisor will listen to your experience and explain relevant Queen鈥檚 policies and procedures, make referrals where appropriate, and offer options for addressing concerns. The service provided by human rights advisors is confidential29, and it is up to you to decide which actions, if any, to take.
If you prefer to document an incident of hate anonymously, please use the IN-SIGHT submission form.
If you are in immediate danger, please contact Campus Security and Emergency Services at 613-533-6111.
Resources of Interest
(Canadian Race Relations Foundation)
(Government of Canada)
(Government of Canada)
(PDF 1.6MB) (Stats Canada Infographic)
(Government of Canada, Infographic)
(PDF 17.9MB) (Canadian Race Relations Foundation report)
(City of Kingston)
Racism, Oppression & Resistance Timeline 1841-2019, Queen鈥檚 University (PDF 4.2MB)
Sources
1/hreo/sites/hreowww/files/uploaded_files/Resources/Anti-Racism/RacismTimeline2019.pdf
2/encyclopedia/p/pierce-alfie
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4The Heritage Front was founded in 1989 and grew to become Canada鈥檚 most prominent white supremacist and neo-Nazi organization.
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8Across Canada, police services use a single definition of hate crime to ensure that the data they collect and report on are consistent and can be compared. The definition is found in the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) Manual (2022, 89)
9Statistics Canada: Information here reflects data reported for 2022. It does not include information from 2023, when the crisis in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip began. Information for 2023 will be released in summer 2024.
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29Advisors observe the following exceptions to confidentiality: (i) when disclosure is required to prevent clear and imminent danger to the client or others;(ii) when legal requirements demand that confidential material be revealed;(iii) when a child is in need of protection.鈥 (Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, Standards of Practice, 5th Edition)