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February 25, 2005
Money to fight hate?
Funding for team unknown one week after budget.
PAT JOHNSON
If it looked like Christmas last week, when Finance Minister Colin
Hansen brought down the provincial Liberal government's last budget
before the May 17 election, Jewish activists are still waiting to
see if there was any Chanukah gelt for a program that is near to
their hearts.
Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region, has been at the forefront
of pressing the government to restore funding for the provincial
Hate Crimes Team, which has been operating at minimum levels since
the province slashed funding to its budget during the "core
review" process three years ago.
Premier Gordon Campbell has promised to restore funding to allow
the small team to return to some of its earlier strength. But provincial
officials have so far been unable to tell Canadian Jewish Congress,
the Bulletin or local politicians whether any of the increased
funding for policing in the budget will make its way to the Hate
Crimes Team.
Jewish community activists have assumed that the promise of restored
funding for the team was dependent on financing that would be announced
in the annual budget. But it remains unclear whether any of the
budget's $198 million promised over three years for public safety
initiatives will find its way to the Hate Crimes Team.
The issue gained immediacy also due to the decision in the Aaron
Webster murder case. The death of Webster, a gay man murdered by
a group of teens and young men in Stanley Park, horrified and galvanized
the gay community. The trial and sentencing this month of one of
his killers, Ryan Cran, made the implementation of hate crimes procedures
a top concern. The Crown counsel prosecuting Cran did not introduce
into the case any evidence of Webster's sexual orientation, the
fact that the area in which the murder took place is frequented
by gay men or other evidence that might have led the judge to consider
federal hate crime provisions in sentencing the accused. Cran, who
was acknowledged in court as the ringleader, received six years
for his role.
Though spokespersons for the province have not yet been able to
sift through the budget's details to provide information on the
Hate Crimes Team, Vancouver city council entered the fray Feb. 17,
when it unanimously passed a motion calling for restored funding.
The resolution, moved by Coun. Tim Stevenson, called for the city
to endorse the call of Canadian Jewish Congress for a well-funded
provincial Hate Crimes Team with strong educational components,
the compilation of hate crime statistics and the use of special
sentencing provisions for hate crimes, as provided for by federal
legislation.
Tony Dumoulin, speaking on behalf of Canadian Jewish Congress ,
told Vancouver city council that his organization stands in solidarity
with victimized communities.
"All of us must have a keen interest in reducing and indeed
eliminating violence against minorities in our society," said
Dumoulin. "Last summer it was a young Filipino boy [killed
in a Vancouver schoolyard] and several years ago it was a beloved
caretaker of a Sikh institution [murdered in Delta]; lives senselessly
brought to an end by those who were filled with vitriolic hatred."
Gay community representatives commended Canadian Jewish Congress
for its leadership on the issue but expressed a sense of isolation
and desperation after the Cran sentencing left some in the gay community
claiming it was open season on them. In addition to the council
and members of the gay community, only Canadian Jewish Congress
was present to speak to the issue at Vancouver city hall.
"Our community has every right to be outraged," said Jim
Deva, co-owner of Little Sister's bookstore and a leader in the
gay community. Deva, speaking in support of Stevenson's motion at
city council, also credited the city for leadership.
"This is the first government support that we've had,"
Deva said. "The city has been there. It's the other levels
of government that we feel abandoned by."
Raymond Campeau, a Vancouver lawyer who sat through the entire trial
into Webster's murder as a concerned citizen, told council that
"homophobia is thriving and rampant."
Campeau believes that the Crown prosecutor assigned to the case
failed to approach the possibility that the killing was a hate crime.
"I was waiting for the gay-bashing issue to come up and the
hate crime issue to come up and it never did," said Campeau.
"It was almost as though he [the Crown counsel] was intimidated
or afraid to go in the direction that it was a hate crime."
As of press time, the government had not given confirmation of funding
for the Hate Crimes Team.
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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