The following is written by Cameron Ketchum, Director, Community Initiatives at United Way East Ontario:
It’s more important now than ever to equip people in our communities with the knowledge and tools to recognize, respond to, and reduce hate incidents in real-world situations.
Even though the Ottawa Police Service identified a slight decrease in reported incidents of hate last year, we know that, according to Statistics Canada, 78 per cent of hate incidents across the country go unreported and that many communities are uncomfortable using formal reporting processes.
That equates to a lot of people in our neighbourhoods feeling unsafe. And public acts of hate, like vandalism at the National Holocaust Monument, can quickly stoke the fire—bringing feelings of fear, isolation, and horror, underlined by intergenerational traumas, back to the surface for many.
Cameron Ketchum is Director, Community Initiatives, United Way East Ontario, and recipient of the 2024 Joan Gullen Social Justice Leadership Award.
At United Way East Ontario, our partners tackling hate, discrimination and violence on the front lines, have been calling for more resources to not only keep up with the surging need for support, but to create meaningful, long-lasting change.
This year, United for All is deploying a series of events, workshops and learning opportunities, focused on empowering community leaders to address anti-Black racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-2SLGBTQIA+ ideology, and misogyny.
The United Way team recently collaborated with SAFE (Strategies for Advocacy, Freedom, and Empowerment) on training sessions for community leaders.
The aim is to empower these folks to transition from passive bystanders to proactive ‘upstanders,’ by using practical strategies to safely and effectively intervene when witnessing hate or discrimination.
Participants learn:
- The difference between hate incidents and hate crimes
- The 5 D’s of upstander intervention: Distract, Document, Delegate, Delay, and Direct
- De-escalation and grounding techniques through real-life scenarios
- Cultural nuance and trauma responses to support targeted individuals effectively
- Their role in creating inclusive, safe spaces across their professional and community settings
In addition, these workshops are designed so that the 40-plus leaders we partnered with can go back to their workplaces and communities, and teach the same tools to their colleagues, peers, and neighbours.
Together with SAFE, we share the goal of creating a ripple effect of positive action and collective resilience. We want to ensure communities are better equipped not only to respond to hate, but to actively foster environments of inclusion and mutual respect.
Throughout this year and into 2026, United for All will be working alongside the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES), Suradway, Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre, the City of Ottawa, and the Ottawa Police Service, to ensure we are all pulling in the same direction to stamp out hate, because only then can we make the greatest difference for those who need our support.
The recent act of vandalism at the National Holocaust Monument is the latest in a series of attacks on cultural institutions and community spaces in our city and serves as a painful yet powerful reminder of why proactive community training is essential.
Addressing hate requires not only empathy but actionable skills, and we hope the steps we’re taking can improve lives across our communities.
Next read:
The United for All coalition is launching a series of events, workshops and learning opportunities across our region, to curb a steep rise in hate crime.
