By PETER CAULFIELDSpecial to The CJN
VANCOUVER - British Columbia's Hate Crime Team needs more money to confront and combat bias and hate-motivated crimes in the province, says Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region (CJC).
That was one of the recommendation that came out of the organization's recently released report titled Public Affairs Action Agenda.
Mark Weintraub, chair of CJC's Pacific region, said that while the Hate Crime Team still exists, its operations have been cut back under Premier Gordon Campbell's Liberal government.
"We're worried that its early gains have been undermined during the last four years," he says.
CJC has noted in the past that as a result of provincial cuts, the unit has not been able to do outreach and education or fill vacant positions, including hiring a data analyst and seconding a Vancouver police officer to join the unit's full-time RCMP officer.
The Hate Crime Team was set up by the previous provincial government. It's made up of specially trained police offcers and Crown attorneys with expertise in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.
The team deals with a broad range of hate-related crimes, including graffiti, assaults and murder, and looks into attacks against minority groups such as Jews, gays, aboriginals and Muslims.
Its recent work includes investigations into an anti-Semitic column in a Lower Mainland Muslim newspaper, and a call by a local Muslim cleric for jihad.
Weintraub said the team should be training all B.C. law enforcement officials to identify crimes where the intent goes beyond an attack on an individual and becomes a threat to society.
"It needs enough money so, for example, provincial law enforcement personnel have sufficient computer power to monitor, record and analyze data related to hate crimes," he said.
The 64-page Public Affairs Action Agenda is a summary of CJC priorities and will guide the organization's ongoing human rights work for the next three years.
The document identifies six areas of concern: hate and bias crime, hate propaganda, Holocaust education, human rights protection, multiculturalism, and affordable housing.
In addition to a call for more funding for the Hate Crime Team, its recommendations include greater intergovernmental co-operation on monitorng and combating hate propaganda, ensuring that Holocaust education remains part of B.C.'s required education curriculum, establishing an information and advisory office wihin the provincial human rights apparatus, improved links between multicultural stakeholder groups; and increased funding for affordable housing.
"Implementing these recommendations are key to ensuring the Jewish community lives and thrives in Canadian society, free of anti-Semitism," Weintraub said.
Canada's approach to fighting hate crime has proven to be successful, he added. "Canada today has a lower incidence of hate crime compared to either the U.S. or Europe."
Congress said the report has been sent to Campbell and to NDP leader Carole James.
Calls to Campbell and James, who are in the middle of a provincial election campaign, were not returned.
To read the CJC report online, visit http://www.cjc.ca/docs/RD/177_PAAA2005.pdf.
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