Hate-motivated incidents becoming ‘more commonplace’ in Halifax, says professor

Anti-Semitic stickers. A poster blaming China for the COVID-19 pandemic. Racial slurs on a sign leading to Viola Desmond’s headstone in a cemetery. 

In the past few days and weeks, these are some of the messages of hate that have been popping up around Halifax Regional Municipality. 

According to Robert Huish, an associate professor of international development studies at Dalhousie University, these incidents are often treated as isolated events, but they are “becoming more and more commonplace” in the city — and regularly documented on social media.  

“When you see something like what happened this weekend, one way to look at it would be to say, ‘This is just a one-off event,’ and then a few weeks go by and there’s another one-off event or there’s another one,” Huish told The Chronicle Herald. 

“When you see that this occurs again and again and again, these repetitive incidents, then we have to see that it’s a symptom of the nature of society.”

Incidents being investigated

Over the weekend, Halifax Regional Police said they found “three highly offensive words” written on a sign that directs visitors to the headstone of Viola Desmond in Camp Hill Cemetery. 

The Chronicle Herald also spotted a poster on a lamp pole on Coburg Road, which appeared to blame China for COVID-19, but was covered with a note that read “POSTER TO BE REMOVED.” 

In recent weeks, the Atlantic Jewish Council has also reported stickers around the city that read, “The Bug That Backfired COVID-19,” alongside the Star of David and a symbol resembling that of the Freemasons, according to AJC executive director Naomi Rosenfeld.  

Those incidents are all being investigated by police. 

Factors in hate-motivated incidents

Rachel Zellars, an assistant professor in the Department of Social Justice and Community Studies at Saint Mary's University, said these incidents are all forms of white supremacy, which continues to be “ingrained” in North America by way of monuments, graffiti and posters, among other “markers.”  

“All of these things intentionally done and left behind in common spaces are storytelling devices,” she said. 

“They tell us a story about the present, of course, about the temperature of white supremacy in our current moment, but they also tell us a very important story about our past, a past that we absolutely have not yet reckoned with or decided to tell in all of its fullness and richness and honesty.”

Rosenfeld acknowledged that the “vast majority of Nova Scotians do not believe these claims,” but said that in the case of the anti-Semitic stickers and the poster about China, it seems like a “radical fringe group” is targeting and blaming specific cultural groups for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“These are very, very tense, stressful times all around and I think that often times when we are in situations that are as drastic and as stressful and as tense as the one we’re in now with the global pandemic, some people will look to someone to blame for a scapegoat,” she said. 

What can be done to address hate? 

Huish, who is conducting a study on consequences and outcomes of such cultural stigma from COVID-19 ordinances in Nova Scotia, New Zealand and Australia, said it will require a “whole-of-government approach” to address hatred in Halifax and Nova Scotia as a whole in order to “create a society of compassion.” 

A whole-of-government approach refers to the joint activities performed by different ministries, public administrations and public agencies in order to provide a solution to a particular issue. 

“Kindness is not just an accident. It is a product of policy and it’s something that governments have to work very hard in order to achieve, and it’s something that the populations themselves have to work hard to achieve, especially in settler states like Canada, New Zealand and Australia,” said Huish.  

“So if it’s police that need to rethink their approach to community engagement, it’s also going to involve education approaches to it, ... there's also roles for labour and roles for health-care to actively recognize that there’s inequities and discrimination that feed on each other.”

Apologies only go so far in addressing racism and discrimination and all levels of government need to do more than apologize for systemic racism, Huish added.  

“To recognize that racism exists is the first step, of course, but to find ways of addressing this is what’s much needed,” he said.

Zellars agreed. 

"We know that apologies are meaningless without action and even when apologies entail next steps, the process is both very important and complicated," she said. 

Record, remove, report hate, police suggest

According to HRP public information officer Const. John MacLeod, there have been seven incidents reported and coded as hate crimes in Halifax in 2020.

As of Monday, MacLeod said police have not made any arrests yet in relation to the recent string of events and they “do not appear to be related,” as they are targeting different groups. 

MacLeod said the police take hate-motivated incidents “seriously” and advises the public to record hate messages, remove them and report them to police.  

“If we know anyone that someone is exposed to behaviour or graffiti or those kinds of things that are threatening or intimidating, we just want people to bring those to our attention so we can look into them … because these are patterns and things that we need to be aware of,” he said. 

Anyone with information about these incidents can call police at 902-490-5020. Anonymous tips can be sent to Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers by calling toll-free 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), submitting a secure web tip at crimestoppers.ns.ca or by using the P3 Tips app.