Acts of hate are impossible to ignore. Week after week, headlines tell the story of yet another minority community targeted by violent acts of hatred.

Monsey, Jersey City, Poway, Halle, Christchurch, Pittsburgh, Charlottesville and Orlando come to mind. Truth be told, it can happen anywhere.

In fact, racist hatred has reared its ugly head right here in our own backyard. One need only remember the horrendous attack targeting worshippers at a mosque in Quebec City or the van attack targeting women in Toronto for proof that Canada is not immune to such acts of hate-filled violence.

Our government must act, and quickly, to ensure that no other Canadian cities are added to that infamous list.

In recent years, hate has spread at lightning speed. Hate crimes targeting Jews, Blacks, Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs, women, members of the LGBTQ2+ community and other vulnerable groups have risen steadily.

This proliferation must be attributed in great part to the growing prevalence of the internet, a tool that has amplified once-marginal voices, allowing them to recruit larger followings. The recent spate of attacks targeting minority communities has proven that what starts with online hate can lead to real-world violence.

While the vast majority of Canadians reject hate outright, that hasn’t stopped hate speech from flourishing online. In recent years, hate groups have carved out a niche for themselves on online platforms. These forums, often open to the general public, have allowed such groups and hate-filled individuals to spread their toxic ideas, recruit followers, and incite violence.

We have all borne witness to the catastrophic results of such incitement. Some communities, including ours, have been disproportionally targeted and terrorized by such acts. This why we have united as a coalition of representatives from a diverse array of communities and groups dedicated to fighting hatred in all its forms to call on the government of Canada to act now.

In the last Parliament, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights Justice undertook a study on online hate. The committee held hearings and received written testimony from dozens of organizations and individuals from across the country – including many of us – on this important issue.

Following these hearings, the committee issued a report last June containing nine recommendations on how to tackle the troubling and escalating problem of online hate.

Among them was recognizing the importance of not only of establishing requirements for monitoring online platforms and internet service providers and addressing incidents of hate speech, but also of the need for enhanced collection and handling of hate crime data, better training for law enforcement, prosecutors and judges on online hate, enhanced public education on what constitutes hate, and possible legislative changes. These recommendations are important tools in addressing the challenge of combating online hate.

Unfortunately, there is no simple solution to this complex challenge. But we must start somewhere, and we must start now.

Government, law enforcement, social media platforms, internet providers, users of these services, and targeted communities such as ours all have roles to play in ensuring that online hate is monitored and ultimately curtailed.

Online hate is a real and present danger and we cannot afford to wait any longer to take action. For vulnerable segments of the Canadian population, it poses a threat to personal safety.

While there is, of course, no way to eliminate the threat of hate-motivated violence, a strong national strategy to combat online hate could make a meaningful difference in protecting all Canadians. It is precisely for this reason that we urge the government to act quickly and devise a comprehensive policy on online hate based on the recommendations of the Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights Justice.

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Although we may not all agree on every recommendation contained in the committee’s report, we all agree it is an excellent starting point.

Attackers inspired by online hate have already claimed too many innocent lives on Canadian soil. Time is truly of the essence.