A former Burnaby school trustee wants Canada to have a standardized method of reporting hate crimes, and her efforts have made it all the way to the House of Commons.
Helen Chang, an ex-TEAM Burnaby school trustee, collected nearly 500 signatures on a petition calling for legislation on reporting hate crimes, similar to what is already in place in the United States.
The American Hate Crime Statistics Act has been around since 1990 and requires the Justice Department to collect data from police about crimes based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity and publishes the findings in an annual report. The FBI also has to report crimes based on disability.
Chang wants a similar system of standardized reporting in place for Canadians.
"I think right now the problem is there's no uniform definition of hate crime," she said. "The statistics act gives a responsibility of front line (workers) in the criminal justice system to report to their superiors."
Burnaby-Douglas MP Kennedy Stewart presented Chang's petition in the House of Commons on Dec. 13. Stewart said he picked up the petition as part of his duties as an MP.
"We're not allowed to endorse or oppose a petition. It's really a service we do on behalf on the constituents," he said.
Stewart said he was happy to present the petition and tied it to the controversy around the Burnaby school board's new policy against homophobic bullying and the Purple Letter Campaign, which is urging the provincial government to implement a similar policy for all B.C. schools.
"Bullying isn't exactly a hate crime, but it can lead to it," Stewart said. "The general idea of keeping statistics on hate crimes is a good thing."
Chang's petition also calls for investigation of two incidents she characterized as hate crimes. According to Chang, the first involved a "hate crimes brochure" delivered to a Burnaby home in the late '90s. The brochure was apparently reported to the RCMP, but Chang has been unsuccessful in tracking down any details of the case, which is why she wants an independent prosecutor to investigate. The second incident, according to Chang, involves a sexually suggestive ad that the Province newspaper allegedly ran in 1998. The ad, according to Chang, featured an "ethnic woman," and Chang suspects the image was used without the woman's permission. Chang said she heard about the ad on the radio, but when she tried to get a copy of the paper, the image had been changed in subsequent editions, and she could not get a copy of the first edition.
The government is expected to respond to Chang's petition some time in February.
