Meeting with the BC Premier
We are excited to share that we attended the BC Premier’s Round Table on Mid-Autumn Festival last month with Premier Eby, Parliamentary Secretary Kelly Greene, MLA George Chow, MLA Henry Yao, and MLA Aman Singh. We asked Premier Eby several questions relating to the government’s anti-racism initiatives, and have listed his answers below:
On the topic of multilingual hate crime reporting:
Premier Eby took a strong stance on the recent distressing event of the "Whites Only Mom and Tots" poster found in Coquitlam. He acknowledged that these incidents highlight the pervasive nature of hate and discrimination in our society. The Premier expressed that such incidents are profoundly disturbing, and that the government is unwavering in its commitment to combat racism and ensure that every member of the community feels safe and welcomed in their neighborhood.
To address these issues, the government is taking concrete steps. For instance, the Attorney General is working on establishing an anti-racism hotline that will accept hate crime reports in multiple languages. This will enable the government to identify the roots of these discriminatory issues and respond effectively through a network of funded anti-racism workers. Additionally, the government is conducting and pushing out surveys across the province to better understand the occurrences and extent of racism, and systemic racism within government structures.
Response to the language barriers issue in other areas of government services:
The government recognizes language as a barrier to accessing justice and government services, especially as BC is experiencing an increasing Vietnamese population of international students. The government is actively working to upgrade its websites for immediate translation into multiple languages, such as offering translation of press releases into languages like Vietnamese. Furthermore, while there are language translation services for 200 languages for some government phone-based services, the government intends on expanding translations to all its services. The government is also committed to conducting surveys to track the different languages and cultural groups that exist in the province, to ensure inclusive language implementation.
Our presence at the roundtable was a great exchange of ideas and we are eager to continue the dialogue concerning hate-crimes. The launch of the hot-line, expansion of language translations to government phone services, and the push for language surveys is a promising step towards greater language inclusivity and accessibility to help. Thanks to Vivian Nguyen for attending this event on our behalf.
As always, we would like to hear your thoughts on what more can be done as we continue our push to make hate crime reporting more accessible. Our feedback form can be access via the button below: