One Our Streets

We have a rise in hate crimes in Ottawa which, while being the capital city of Canada, has always felt like a quiet place.  With a 23.5 per cent increase in hate incidents in 2023 Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs said, “Across North America and really the world, we’ve seen this trend of hate crimes on the rise.” and one of the targeted groups was the LGBTQ community.  This gave me pause because many Canadians have been talking amongst ourselves about the shocking changes we are seeing. Canada has had a good history of supporting LGBTQ rights by decriminalizing being gay as early as 1969, legalizing same sex adoption in 1995, legalizing same sex marriage in 2005 and making LGBTQ discrimination illegal in 2017. Recently, however, in Canada, we’ve had marches called, “Leave our kids alone”. Under the guise of protecting children against learning too much about sex, they actually want them to learn nothing about the LGBTQ community. These were actually anti-LGBTQ marches on our streets. Some of the hateful things left many of us reeling. In a country used to tolerance, this was shocking.  What is also worrisome was the fact that they went to great lengths to look like a bunch of concerned parents, organizing organically at the local level. However, in reality they were “supported by a big tent of far-right and conspiratorial groups, including Christian Nationalists, COVID-19 conspiracy theorists, sovereign citizens, and anti-public education activists.” nd they are aligned with the international groups holding these “leave our kids alone” marches in the United States.  In typical Canadian fashion, many people came to show strong support the LGBTQ community as well.  But make no mistake, this has shaken us. Canada has always been a tolerant country, largely insulated from the far right hateful shouting elsewhere. To have these same slogans - at times screamed out by children - was horrifyingly unCanadian.  So I return to where I started, Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs talking about the hate rising in around us. It was a warning to us that we are not immune. The money, connections, online hate from the far right has come to our city and the cities in Canada.  What is uniquely Canadian is a history of calm and civility. It is the thing that Americans make fun of as the ‘nice’ Canadian, suggesting a naiveté and cluelessness. They misunderstand. It’s actually a steely determination not to get caught up in anger and drama. It’s not soft. It’s actually strong.  The childish shouting, drama and anger are the things the extremists feed off. These are the things we have tried to have a steely resolve to avoid. That’s the backbone of who we are and I hope, the civility will once again win. It always has.