London City Hall starts new anti-hate campaign: ‘Action and alliance’

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London City Hall is introducing a new public awareness campaign to combat hate, a provincially funded pilot program that could be a model for other communities.

City officials launched the Stop Tolerhating campaign on Friday, a play on the word tolerate. The website and associated awareness campaign aim to tackle intolerance in the city and prevent future incidents of racism, hatred and discrimination.

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“Stop Tolerhating is not just a response to the challenges we face, it is a statement of the kind of city we want to be,” Mayor Josh Morgan said in a news release Friday. “Through awareness, action and allyship, we can foster a community where no one is left behind.”

The Stop Tolerhating website provides information on how Londoners can combat prejudice in their own lives and be allies to others experiencing hate.

The website includes tips on how bystanders who witness hate can intervene and strategies for dealing with hate online, at work or school and in social situations. The campaign encourages Londoners to make their voices heard and tackle hate head-on when they see it.

Stop Tolerhating also has resources for Londoners who have experienced hate, including links to community support for specific groups such as Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ, Muslim and Jewish residents.

“London’s neighborhoods should be places of safety, not places of tension,” said Sanjay Govindaraj, director of Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression in London. “We have the power to turn fear into hope and create a London where everyone can walk out their doors without fear of intimidation, judgment or violence.”

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The project was led by City Hall’s Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Department and completed with the collaboration of several local organizations and consultation with communities in London that lacked equality.

London’s Stop Tolerhating campaign, which will include ads on digital billboards and in transit shelters across the city, will run until July 2025.

The provincial government gave City Hall $500,000 in June 2023 to support new programs to combat hate and racism. London City Hall has since developed the Stop Tolerhating public awareness campaign and an online resource centre.

The province’s funding commitment came as London commemorated the second anniversary of the murder of four members of the Afzaal family, who were beaten and killed at a Hyde Park intersection because of their Muslim faith.

Last November, Nathaniel Veltman was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder for the murder of Talat Afzaal, her son Salman Afzaal, his wife Madiha Salman and their daughter Yumnah Afzaal and one count of attempted murder of the youngest member of the Afzaal family. .

At his sentencing in February, the judge ruled that Veltman’s crimes constituted terrorist activities.

More information:

Website: www.london.ca/stoptolerhating

Hashtag: #StopTolerhating

Feedback and questions: [email protected]

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