Hate in Hamilton: what went wrong and how we make it right

The hot summer of 2019 might be remembered as one where the city of Hamilton saw its reputation take a considerablehit.

It started on June 15, just before the summer began. The Hamilton Pride celebration at Gage Park was crashedby a group of self-appointed street preachers carryinghomophobic signs that fought with people at the park for the celebration. That wasfollowed by accusations that police were too slow to respond to the fights and that city leaders were slow to condemn the preachersat the park and a groupof far right extremists that had been marching at city hall every Saturday for months.

Then, in July,came a report from Statistics Canada that named Hamilton as the city with the highest rate of reported hate crimes in Canada.

Hamilton's rate was almost three times the national rate of 4.9 per cent per 100,000 people. All of this was happening while the cityinvestigateda long time employee forlinks to white supremacists.

The anger over the events at Pride even made its way to the home of Mayor Fred Eisenbergerwhere about 20 peopleshowed up to protest, planting signs on his lawn in the early morning on June 28.

On Wednesdayat noon CBC Hamilton will host a live conversation on this page and on Facebook to take a look at how this happened in Hamilton, how other cities are dealing with hate speech and hate crimes as well as what the city needs to do to change.

CBC Hamilton reporter Samantha Craggs will be joined by McMaster University sociology professors Tina Fetner and Ameil Joseph. Fetnerspecializes in right wing activism and LGTBQ+ politics. Joseph isa researcher of racism, colonialism, mental health, criminal justice and immigration systems.He interned with Waterloo police and was recently passed over for the third time for a spot on the city's police services board.

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We also want to hear from you, through Twitter and Facebook or by email. We want to know what you think about the city how the city can start to fix some of the problems that have gained more attention over the last several weeks. On mobile? Follow this link.