Report suggests incidents of hate commonplace in Waterloo Region

The reported data collected by the Coalition of Muslim Women of K-W showcases a troubling frequency of reported hate related incidents.

It comes one year after the tragic deaths of four members of the Afzaal family in London, Ontario. A truck driver allegedly mounted a curb and ran over the father, mother, grandmother and daughter of the family. Prosecutors have called it a hate-motivated attack.

Appearing on the Mike Farwell Show on CityNews 570, Fauzia Mazhar, executive director with the Coalition of Muslim Women of K-W said the data along with the remembrance of members of the Azfaal family brings to light a serious issue of hate, “Last year was a waking up moment and it's like, yes, you were right we need to do something about this problem as a community, as a country.”  

When asked if she felt the community was in a better place in terms of weeding out hate one year later, she reluctantly said no, “Unfortunately we're not in a better place as we see statistics from year to year to year, we've seen a steady increase in hate crimes in Canada.” 

The Coalition of Muslim Women of K-W started an online site back in April 2021 — reportinghate.ca — to be used as a tool for reporting incidents of hate around southern Ontario and across the country. In Waterloo Region alone, at least 100 incidents of hate were reported. More than half of those reports occurred in Kitchener, around a quarter occurred in Waterloo and about 10 per cent in Cambridge. 

Islamophobia made up more than half if the reports, while Indigenous racism, Anti-Black racism and Anti-Asian racism were also reported. 

Local community groups such as the Waterloo Region Jewish Community Council, Landback Camp K-W and the Caribbean Canadian Association supported that data with their input. 

Also appearing on the Mike Farwell Show, Sarah Shafiq, director of programming and services with the Coalition of Muslim Women of K-W. Shafiq explained why this online reporting tool is so important. 

“We need to document these incidents and remove the barriers to reporting,” said Shafiq. 

Shafiq stressed that the online reporting tool is not just for reporting incidents of Islamophobia but, also incidents of racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and others. She said allies and witnesses of hateful incidents should also be reporting to help combat it in our communities.