Vitriolic speeches, hateful comments instigating violence against an ethnic group have no place in Canadian society. So, not surprisingly, Vancouver Muslim cleric Younus Kathrada lashing out at Jews made it into the front page of many newspapers and the top of television broadcasts. But the problem is the media fail to put the issue of hatred front and centre consistently. Two weeks back, there was hate literature — in the form of a referendum — distributed against the Sikh community in the Fraser Valley. Questions in the “referendum” ranged from contentious issues to downright hate and were strewn with crass labels and violent language. Some media like the Abbotsford Times and subsequently CTV chose to run the story. The Times even ran some of the terrible questions and obscene labels. “We wanted to show how distasteful it was and generate a discussion,” said Rick Collins at the Times. Others decided not to give the perpetrator (whether an individual or a group of people) any credence. The Abbotsford News didn’t think it deserved attention because the document was anonymous. Says Rick Rake, editor of the paper, “We made a conscious decision not to feed into this little fire someone was trying to create. We will spur into action if charges are laid.” Others in the provincial media also chose to ignore the distasteful document. The coverage of hate activity of whatever magnitude has always been contentious. In the 1998 killing of Nirmal Gill, a caretaker at a Surrey Sikh Temple, the reporting was subdued and the commentary almost non-existent. In interviews for a column at the time, several editors and news directors told me that they were very cautious not to create any unnecessary fear or panic in a minority community and also not to give undue importance to the perpetrators. They also said they used extreme caution not to encourage copycat crimes and to make the distinction between a real hate crime and just the work of pranksters. So the assault on a Vancouver cab driver a couple of years back was merely a blip on the media radar. In contrast, incidents involving crimes from the minority community or within the minority community get generous coverage and hype. Missing is the concern or attention paid to raising fears in the larger community about minorities. It is almost as if a subconscious cultural bias exists where media and even police authorities do not hesitate to use language that might drag the whole ethnic community of the accused into the public spotlight by repeated references to the ethnicity of the alleged criminal. In general, the message people receive is that if a criminal is from a different background, maybe their ethnicity or religion has something to do with the criminal behaviour. But if the crime is committed by a member of the larger community, then the individual is nothing but a criminal, a marginalized person far removed from the broad thinking in the mainstream society. So we live in ignorance. Muslims are repeatedly brandished and feared as terrorists in various settings. Other minorities are called names and labels (the recent “referendum” referred to Sikhs as ragheads.) Surely equivalent coverage of racism and hate activity would help balance the skewed image society is busy forming about minorities and criminality. The light should shine equally on all bad apples irrespective of what rot they represent.

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Call: +1 (604) 358 3436