Local MPP says time to rethink how we respond to hate

Hate doesn't happen and it certainly doesn't spread in a silo -- so responding to it shouldn't happen that way either. That's the message from a local MPP who is now asking members of the community to reach out to her office if they've been the target of a hateful act.

The call, which was made on social media on Sunday, came as social media was abuzz with scenes from the convoy protest in Ottawa, some of which were deeply troubling.

"It is not easy to wake up and see swastikas and Nazi flags and confederate flags in Ottawa," said Kitchener-Centre MPP Laura Mae Lindo. "And often times when you see that kind of footage you think that level of hate doesn't exist in your own community."

"And while some people were sort of breathing a sigh of relief that was happening elsewhere, my office was receiving a number of reports of death threats, hate directed at people who spoke up about the convoy."

But Lindo says this isn't just about signs of hate seen over the weekend in Ottawa, also pointing to violence during an anti-racism rally in Wilmot, Indigenous community members experiencing hate and threats at Land Back Camp, or hate directed at people who spoke out about removing or moving the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Baden.

"From my vantage point and from the work that I do, these are not isolated incidents," Lindo said. "And what I wanted to do was to take an opportunity to use my own position of influence and privilege as the elected representative for Kitchener-Centre to bring people together who have been targeted."

Lindo says the main goal of bringing people together in this way is to make sure those who have been targeted don't feel they're alone.

"When you are on the receiving end of threats like these you often are made to feel like you are alone," she said. "Part of the goal is to make you feel like you are alone and so I wanted to bring folks together so they know they aren't alone."

The call for people who feel they have been targeted by hate to reach out to her office also comes as Lindo says the traditional response, being to pick up the phone and report the incident to police, can lead to a sense of further isolation.

"The challenge that we have before us right now is that the tools that you have to access, the tools that are available to you when you are at the receiving end of this level of hate, are tools that also perpetuate this idea that it's an isolated incident," said Lindo.

"Our police system provides you with an incident number that is reinforcing this idea that [the hate you experienced] is isolated from others," she said. "So if that is isolated from the other examples of hate and targeted threats that are coming across this region, if it remains isolated, than the people who are perpetuating that hate win."

"That's their goal is to keep it isolated so you don't see the patterns."

Lindo says considering hate-fulled incidents as inter-connected can also help to recognize what is going on and potentially find who may be organizing to perpetuate hate in the community.

"And the most important piece for me, the part that makes me do this work and compels me to do this work, we have an opportunity to say no to that and yes to a different kind of community."

My office has received a number of reports of targeted threats directed at numerous community members standing up against racism, homophobia & transphobia.

If you have been a target of hate, please email my office:
llindo-co@ndp.on.ca

It’s time to connect the dots.💜 pic.twitter.com/4Zf9vOzzOO

— Laura Mae Lindo (@LauraMaeLindo) January 30, 2022