Ottawa's hate-motivated attacks can't be solved by police alone

A Jewish woman was stabbed in the Loblaws at College Square on Aug. 27. She survived and a man was charged as the Ottawa police hate crimes unit investigated. Photo by JEAN LEVAC /POSTMEDIA

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The man who allegedly assaulted a Muslim woman in a “hate-motivated” attack on an OC Transpo bus in Kanata, has been arrested and charged by Ottawa Police  – and the swift action should calm down concerned citizens. Cyrus Amir Souaid will have his day in court.

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But what’s troubling about these attacks is that much as politicians, including Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, strongly condemn these violent incidents, and most of us are appalled by them, they keep occurring. Many such attacks have taken place in the city and across the country.

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Indeed, not long after the Kanata assault, the Ottawa Police revealed another man yelling slurs at a Muslim woman, in yet another “hate-motivated” incident at a Carling Avenue gas station, was charged with assault. And Joseph Rooke, the Cornwall man who stabbed a Jewish woman in an Ottawa grocery store, has been denied bail and is awaiting trial. There is no question Ottawa police are doing their part, swiftly arresting and charging the perpetrators. But police alone can’t solve this problem and need societal help, but what kind, exactly? That’s what we should all ponder.

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In the last few months, the answer from both city and federal governments has been to propose laws that ban or limit protests near schools and places of worship, in the misguided belief that such action will help the fight against antisemitism and Islamophobia. The City of Ottawa first proposed a “bubble bylaw” that would ban or limit protests near schools and places of worship because they intimidate or offend vulnerable people. That bylaw is now being fine-tuned by staff and would be sent to council early next year for approval.

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But it may be overtaken by Bill C-9, similar federal legislation that is now before the House. It also aims to limit protests near places of worship and schools, ignoring the reality that most hate attacks happen in everyday interactions on streets and in communities, something that has been unfolding before our eyes in the past weeks and months. Banning or limiting protests at certain locations is the easy thing to do, but it won’t have a lasting impact.

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The hate that manifests itself in physical attacks is in people’s minds, and that cannot be legislated away. And much as they try, police cannot stop random attacks on buses or in grocery stores. They just can’t be everywhere. Maybe we should take time to find out what is actually triggering them and deal with it at the source. Is it the Israel-Hamas war fuelling the attacks, as some have suggested? Is it fair to say that it is the Middle East conflict that has brought us to this sorry state of affairs? We need to find out and work on it. Hate-motivated violence doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It is fuelled by the inflammatory language we throw at each other.