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CTV News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Hate toward South Asians ‘skyrocketing' in Canada, report says
FILE - This combination of photos shows logos of X, formerly known as Twitter, top left; Snapchat, top right; Facebook, bottom left; and TikTok, bottom right. A federal judge extended a block on enforcement Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, of an Ohio law that would require children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps as a legal challenge proceeds. (AP Photo, File) There's been a sharp rise in online hate targeting the South Asian community in Canada, spurred in part by a domestic extremist group and the spread of anti-immigration messaging, according to a new report published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). 'We did see on X specifically that South Asians were really disproportionately targeted compared to some other ethnic and religious minorities' said Steven Rai, a domestic extremism analyst with ISD, in an interview with CTV News. The report — which found anti-South Asian the has 'been skyrocketing' both online and offline — is an analysis of high-level quantitative data specifically seeking posts with slurs targeting South Asian communities and filtering for those either coming from or referencing Canada. 'Our analysis found that posts containing anti-South Asian slurs increased by more than 1,350 percent from 2023 to 2024 on X (formerly Twitter), with police-reported hate crimes against South Asians in Canada increasing by more than 227 percent between 2019 and 2023 ,' the report states. Rai called the findings 'absolutely staggering.' He said the research also looked at other groups, for example Muslims, and the found hateful posts targeting those communities were stable in terms of quantity. 'That's not to say other forms of hate aren't incredibly important and concerning, but what really caught my eye here was just how much anti-South Asian hate specifically is rising,' Rai said. The report comes amid separate analysis by the ISD digging into online domestic extremism in Canada. The institute defines targeted hate as any activity that 'seeks to dehumanize, demonize, harass, threaten, or incite violence against an individual or community based on religion, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, or migrant status.' Rai said he decided to do quantitative data analysis of posts targeting South Asians after he personally noticed an increase in hateful posts, and wanted to see whether the numbers supported his theory. 'And then I started to notice that the narratives painting Indians and other South Asian groups as invaders, as dirty, as criminals, really started to take off on social media,' he said. 'Unsurprisingly but unfortunately, we did see a really clear rise in the data beginning in late 2023 and over the course of 2024,' he added. According to the report, the posts also target South Asian politicians in Canada, with a spike in posts during the April federal election, in particular aimed at former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. Rai said there are seemingly several factors affecting the issue, one of them being Canadians seemingly conflating concerns around the housing crisis, a lack of job opportunities and other economic anxieties as being the fault of immigration policy. 'And they're sort of linking what they perceive as a weakness in the Canadian economy to an influx in immigration,' Rai explained. 'So that's the first piece for a lot of Canadians.' 'And then they're looking at who are the most visible ethnic minorities in Canada, and we see a huge South Asian population there — in places like Brampton (Ont.) or Surrey (B.C.) — so South Asians have become visible targets for a lot of people who are looking for a scapegoat and for someone to blame for these economic problems,' he added. Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised a cap on immigration numbers, in part to ease pressure on the housing sector. The ISD report also included a case analysis of the white supremacist group Diagalon, which became prominent during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Canada, and the leaders of which Rai said 'are really heavily promoting this hate against Indian people, specifically.' According to the report, the dataset also found that Indian people specifically were targeted using language invoking the Great Replacement, an online conspiracy theory that elites are trying to deliberately change demographics by increasing non-white migration. Extending the data search to include not just posts within Canada, but also those mentioning the country, Rai said, allowed him to also see that Canada is also being held up as an example of what might happen when a country is supposedly 'overtaken' by 'non-white invaders.'
National Post
07-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
FIRST READING: Ottawa hired U.K. contractor to monitor pro-Israel social media posts
Article content On Oct. 7 of last year, one of Canada's most active anti-Israel groups, Palestinian Youth Movement, held a celebratory rally to 'honour the martyrs of the past year.' Article content Nevertheless, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue deems it extremist to say the demonstrations are 'protesting for the death of Jews and the Jewish state.' Article content The aftermath of the October 7 massacres has also cast scrutiny on the aid agency UNRWA. Despite receiving ample funding from the Government of Canada, the group has been repeatedly linked to Palestinian extremism, including an instance in August where the agency dismissed nine staffers for their alleged participation in the October 7 attacks. Article content In September, UNRWA would confirm that a top Hamas commander killed in Lebanon was one of its employees. Article content Nevertheless, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue concluded that any online post linking Canada's UNRWA funding with the October 7 attacks was trafficking in right-wing extremism. Article content 'Among the top performing tweets about the conflict that were shared among right-wing extremists in Canada in the month after October 7 2023 were posts claiming that Justin Trudeau had directly funded the Hamas attacks through contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees,' it says. Article content Anti-Israel narratives were mentioned, but only as they pertained to right-wing sources. 'Several Telegram channels associated with extreme right-wing content creators both hosted antisemitic material and amplified posts from influential international right-wing extremists and antisemites,' it wrote. Article content The contract with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue was first publicized in a story this week by the new outlet Blacklock's Reporter. The program was funded via the Digital Citizen Contribution Program, a new Liberal fund first pitched as a means towards 'countering online disinformation.' Article content In the past few years, the Liberal government has leaned hard into the perceived threat posed by online 'disinformation' or 'misinformation.' This most notably took the form of the Online Harms Act, a tabled piece of legislation that broadened police powers to punish online speech, and even provided for preliminary detention of Canadians based on the suspicion that they may post hateful speech in future. Article content Although the Online Harms Act was killed with the January prorogation of Parliament, Prime Minister Mark Carney has indicated a willingness to return to the issue. Article content During the campaign, Carney declared that 'large American online platforms have become seas of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate in all its forms.' Article content Article content Article content Just one week after winning election, Prime Minister Mark Carney had his first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. Carney's primary electoral pitch was that he would be a tough negotiator with the U.S. He even declared that Canada's 'old relationship' with the U.S. was 'over.' Nevertheless, the meeting featured no shortage of coded abuse from Trump and even strangely obsequious praise from the new Canadian leader. Some highlights …. Article content Carney opened a press briefing with Trump by delivering the following: 'I would like to thank you for your hospitality, and above all, for your leadership. You're a transformational president, with a focus on the economy, with a relentless focus on the American worker. Securing the borders. Ending the scourge of fentanyl and other opioids. And, uh, securing the world.' Carney gesturing to the White House and saying that the official residence is similar to Canada in that it is 'not for sale.' 'Never say never,' responded Trump. Trump going on his usual rant about how Canada would benefit from U.S. statehood while Carney awkwardly smiled next to him. 'It would be a massive tax cut for the Canadian citizens, you get free military, tremendous medical care,' said Trump, adding that a United States encompassing the current territory of Canada is more 'artistically' pleasing. Article content
