The city is being urged to take action against hate groups in Hamilton.
City councillors are being asked not to rent or lease city parks or facilities to groups or organizations which discriminate or promote hatred against others.
A series of groups made that request at city hall on Wednesday, as part of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
They include the Community Coalition Against Racism (CCAR), Afro Canadian Caribbean Association and McMaster Indigenous Student Community Alliance.
CCAR’s Ken Stone says that as a group, they encourage Hamilton politicians to “take a stand by proclaiming that hate groups have no place in our city.”
Councillors have voiced widespread support for the appeal, voting unanimously to have staff investigate possible ways to “mitigate” the concern, but Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger acknowledges they are “navigating tricky ground.”
Eisenberger notes that the dilemma is preventing people from “inciting hate in our community” while also standing up for free speech and “not creating a bigger problem than already exists.”
The mayor also stresses that defining a hate group is “a very subjective issue, right now, that needs some clarity as we go down this road.”
Stone says the coalition’s definition is “any organization discriminating or promoting hatred against people who fall under any of the 14 protected grounds set out in the Ontario Human Rights Code.”
In the past year, groups espousing anti-immigration or anti-Islam views have stirred up controversy by protesting at city hall.
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