York Region’s 30% visible-minority population includes a high number of Chinese and South Asian residents. During the 2007 fishing season, several violent assaults on Asian-Canadian anglers were reported.

To address this and similar problems, in September 2007, YRP’s Diversity & Cultural Resources Bureau established a Hate Crimes Reporting Hotline, as well as a Hate Crimes Community Working Group, with representatives from vulnerable Jewish, Asian, Muslim, and LGBT communities.  

The hotline allows York residents targeted outside of their jurisdiction to report incidents to YRP, which forwards their statement to the appropriate jurisdiction. Beyond sending a clear message to perpetrators that hate will not be tolerated, these initiatives facilitate greater dialogue between law-enforcement jurisdictions.
Success

The impact has been considerable: With YRP’s efforts, a conviction was secured in the case of the most serious angler attack, and a community isolated by racist attacks has found an advocate.

The greatest challenge has been a linguistic one. Police officers fluent in the languages of targeted communities must be available to collect information from hotline users, and publicity materials must be printed in these languages.