The Anti-Racism & Respect Advisory Committee in Thunder Bay have just completed their first year of the Incident Reporting program which aims to eliminate racism in the city by providing an outlet for individuals to report any incidents of racism they have experienced or witnessed.

The committee, in partnership with Diversity Thunder Bay and Lakehead Social Planning Council, said that as of May 2018, there has been a total of 176 reports, with 143 of them reported online, 26 by phone and seven through walk-in interviews.

"It would have been better if we got more people reporting incidents," said Abu-Bakare, chair of the Anti-Racism & Respect Advisory Committee. "I think creating the awareness with this report is going to be important so that next year we have a better sense of what's going on in the city."

She said despite the number of people who reported, she also understands why some people don't feel comfortable coming forward.

"We would have loved to have more because we know there's people who didn't report," Abu-Bakare said, "but I wasn't surprised because racist incidents are quite traumatic for some people, so when they don't report it, it's normal."

The results from the first year of the program showed that 60 per cent of reported incidents of racism were targeted to Indigenous people. According to the program's researcher, Amy Siciliano, racist incidents happened to Indigenous people all over Thunder Bay and not just in the downtown core.

"47 per cent of people who reported an incident involved verbal assault," Siciliano said, "and although the information of where the incident took place was voluntary, I mapped out the locations with the information I had and Indigenous people faced racism everywhere in the city."

She said the current reporting system does not accurately portray how frequent these incidents of racism are occurring in our city, which is why she recommended that the city have a few questions in the Citizen Satisfaction survey that's released to the community every two years.

The Indigenous Friendship Centre on Cumberland Street has also joined in on the partnership, according to Abu-Bakare, in order to provide a safe place for First Nation people "so they can have somebody of their own to stand with them."