Events › Human Rights Speaker Series: Hate Crimes

Is the way we punish hate crimes leading to more hate?

Our response to hate crimes is often to push racialized communities towards the justice system. Does this make them safer? Does it help them heal? Edmonton has a long troubled history with Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls (MMIWG), and has seen a recent rash of hate crimes against numerous racialized and faith communities. Often the perpetrators aren’t who we think; many of the attackers come with their own racialized trauma and difficulties. What might it look like to address a hate crime and healing from the justice traditions of the communities involved? 

Join Edmonton’s Historian Co-Laureates, Cheryl Whiskeyjack & Omar Yaqub, as they explore this nuanced question.

Cheryl Whiskeyjack is the Executive Director of the Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society and serves as a board member of the Canadian Accreditation Council of Human Services, the Align Association of Community Services and was newly appointed to the Board of PolicyWise for Children & Families. She has contributed to the work of EndPovertyEdmonton since its inception and is on its Board of Directors. She also sits at the table for the National Advisory Council on Poverty.

Omar Yaqub is excited about soulful placemaking, shared stories, and disrupting inequity through beauty. He is a settler on Treaty 6, with two decades of experience in the for-benefit sector. He serves Islamic Family, a multi-award winning Imagine Canada accredited charity in the social services sector. Omar has been a part of the creation process for The Canadian Prayer Rug, Roots on 6, and ECVO's History of Edmonton’s Human Services Sector.