Removing barriers to reporting hate crimes
Send a Support Letter
Language is a barrier to reporting hate crimes. For those who are not fluent in English, calling the police is intimidating and discourages individuals from contacting the police in the first place.
To stem the rise of hate crimes, we must change the status quo.
We need a hate crime reporting system that is accessible to everyone. This starts with providing a way to report hate crimes online in English and in multiple languages.
News
To learn more about the barriers to hate crime reporting, see our research here.
Letter to the Solicitor General, the Attorney General, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, and Police Chiefs across BC and Canada
I write regarding my difficulties reporting my hate crime incident as captured by over thirty national and international media outlets, including The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, CBC, as well as language-specific outlets for the Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Japanese and South Asian communities.
Our Why
Hate crimes are underreported because there are barriers in the system.
There is a lack of accessible reporting options. In most cities, the only way to report a hate crime is through a non-emergency phone line.
Non-emergency lines are open for limited hours and victims are forced to wait for an unreasonable amount of time. Over 40% of phone calls go unanswered. In some cases, wait times can exceed over 50 hours. This is a public safety issue.
Language poses another barrier. Non-emergency phone lines are available in English and sometimes French. For those who are not fluent in these languages, calling the non-emergency line is intimidating and discourages individuals from contacting the police in the first place.
The status quo is no longer working and does not serve the populations who are most affected by hate crimes. We need a better way now.
Our Ask
We ask law enforcement agencies to provide accessible reporting systems in multiple languages.
Without change, over 9.6 million visible minorities across Canada cannot report a hate crime unless they call a non-emergency line.
Only a handful of cities (Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Coquitlam, North Vancouver) have online reporting forms for hate crimes. Many of these online options are still limited to only English and French. In other jurisdictions, someone can only report by phone, in English and with limited hours.
We have to make reporting hate crimes as accessible as possible, and this starts with providing online and multilingual reporting options.
Our Community
The lack of accessibility to report hate crimes affects all of us. It affects our friends, it affects our neighbours, and it affects our entire community regardless of ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion. It's time for all of us as residents of Canada to create change and show that we live in a safe and welcoming society for all.
Steven Ngo
JD (Peter A. Allard School of Law at UBC)
BC Medal of Good Citizenship Recipient
Member of the Law Society of British Columbia and Alberta
繁體中文 | 简体中文 | Tiếng Việt | Tagalog | 한국어
Speaking Engagements
Media
Asian Canadians dismayed by lack of hate crime charge in assault on elderly man
A Vancouver lawyer is among those in the Asian Canadian community who say they are saddened and appalled that a man who shoved a 92-year-old to the ground at a Vancouver 7-Eleven store two years ago was not charged with a hate crime.
Hate crimes under-reported in Canada, say anti-racism advocates
Even as Statistics Canada reports that hate crimes are soaring in the country, anti-racism advocates say the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Attacks make Vancouver ‘anti-Asian hate crime capital of North America’
Steven Ngo had stopped at a traffic light in a residential neighbourhood in the eastern part of Vancouver when passengers in another car tossed garbage at him, shouting racial slurs as they sped off.
Lawyer calls on Vancouver police to improve its hate-crime reporting system
A Vancouver lawyer is calling on the Vancouver Police Department to improve its hate-crime reporting system.
Vancouver lawyer and model battle anti-Asian hate with the practical and the poetic
Confronted with attacks against Asians in the media and in their own lives, two Vancouver men say they're fighting anti-Asian hate crimes on their own terms.
VPD website deters victims of hate crimes, lawyer says
'Not all Asians are Chinese, and if you are Chinese, you may not read or write Chinese,’ says Vancouver lawyer, whose experience trying to file a complaint now has Vancouver police reviewing their online forms.
Vancouver resident raises questions about how people who don’t speak English or read Chinese are expected to report hate crimes
Steven Ngo says he was the target of a racist slur by two other people this week. Garbage was even thrown at him. But the lawyer found it was very difficult to report the incident to Vancouver Police.
Vancouver tops the list for Anti-Asian hate crimes
A new study from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernadino reveals Vancouver reported more anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020 than any other city in North America.
'What if you don't speak Chinese?': Vancouver man faces challenges while reporting a hate crime against him
Steven Ngo was stopped at a traffic light at Fraser Street at 41st Avenue when he heard someone yelling at him from the car in the next lane.
Vancouver police's anti-Asian crime reporting system flawed, says lawyer
An Asian-Canadian lawyer who says he was the target of a racist attack this week says Vancouver police aren’t making it easy for some people to report such incidents.
Why We Should Care About the Rise of Anti-Asian Racism, the “Model Minority” Myth and the “Bamboo Ceiling”
The model minority myth harms Asian communities by making them appear homogeneous. In Vancouver, a prime example is the initial lack of reporting options for Asians who were victims of hate crime.
Lawyer says VPD hate crime reporting system flawed after racist incident
A Vancouver lawyer is shedding light on the barriers people face when attempting to report a hate crime in the city.
Vancouver revealed as the hate crime capital for Asians
Steven Ngo, a Vancouver lawyer, was out for a drive last month when two men hurled a racial slur at him and threw rubbish at his car.
Overcoming Barriers to Seeking Justice for Anti-Asian Hate Crime
When Steven Ngo wanted to report an anti-Asian hate crime to the police, he couldn't. Steven Ngo's encounter with the Vancouver Police Department and their hate crime reporting is only another symptom of the systemic racism in the legal system.
Language Specific Media
律師街頭遭種族辱罵扔垃圾 報案遇阻滯溫警仇恨舉報表格只有中文
大溫歧視亞裔行為急升，一名亞裔律師周四(15日)在溫哥華遭種族歧視辱罵並拋擲垃圾，可是他嘗試報案時卻屢次受挫；發現溫哥華市警的仇恨罪案舉報表格只有中文，讓中文不靈光的他幾乎報不了案。
ヘイトクライム通報のオンライン・多言語対応を求めて
アジア系住民に対する差別や偏見に基づくヘイトクライムが北米で急増している。バンクーバーも例外ではなく、バンクーバー警察が2021年2月に発表した報告書によると、アジア系に対するヘイトクライムは2019年の12件に対して2020年は98件。2020年は前年と比較して717％の増加となった。
溫市越裔律師成為歧視事件受害者
疫情爆發後, 亞裔遭受歧視的個案在溫市及部分大溫城市急速上升.
A Vancouver, une hausse «alarmante» du racisme anti-asiatique
Dans la cosmopolite capitale de Colombie-Britannique, les agressions racistes à l’encontre des Canadiens d’origine asiatique ont explosé depuis le début de la pandémie.
Is language a barrier in reporting hate crimes? Asian-Canadian lawyers weigh in
Itinutulak ng isang grupo ng Asian-Canadian lawyers na gawing mas madali para sa komunidad ang pag-report ng mga insidente ng anti-Asian hate. Ang detalye sa report ni Theresa Redula.
Radio Interviews
CBC News: The World at Six
Steven speaks with Katie Nicholson of the CBC about the latest Angus Reid study on anti-Asian racism.
CKNW AM980
Steven speaks on CKNW’s Mornings with Simi about the latest Bloomberg article and the barriers in place to reporting hate crimes to the police.
Fairchild Radio AM1470
Steven speaks with Eric Chueng from Fairchild Radio, the premiere Cantonese/Mandarin radio station in Vancouver.
Spice Radio AM1200
Steven speaks with Gurjit Singh Vairowal on Spice Radio, the premiere South Asian radio station in Vancouver.
VietBC FM100.5
Steven speaks with Hop Phan from VietBC about why access to reporting matters to the Vietnamese community and the broader community at large.
Lac Viet FM96.1
Steven speaks with Tammy Dao from Lac Viet about improving accessibility for the four largest East-Asian groups in BC and how anyone can be a target.
Podcasts
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Host: Shit We Don’t Tell Mom — We sat down with a much-admired community leader, Steven Ngo, a lawyer, social entrepreneur, husband, son, and dear friend.
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Host: Canadian Equality Consulting — How Steven Ngo’s struggles to report a hate crime began a movement to remove barriers to reporting anti-Asian hate crimes in Vancouver.
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Host: Dr. Gina Ko — Steven shares his experience growing up in Canada with Chinese and Vietnamese roots as his parents are from China and Vietnam.
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Host: Sean Bloch — Our Guest, @stevennogo, experienced an Anti-Asian racist attack in his home country of Canada.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
— Margaret Mead