London city hall starts new anti-hate campaign: ‘Action and allyship’

Article content

London city hall is rolling out a new public awareness campaign to combat hate, a provincially funded pilot program that could be a model for other communities.  

City officials launched the Stop Tolerhating campaign, a play on the word tolerating, Friday. The website and accompanying public awareness push is intended to address intolerance in the city and prevent future incidents of racism, hate and discrimination.  

Article content

“Stop Tolerhating is not just a response to the challenges we face, it’s a declaration of the kind of city we want to be,” Mayor Josh Morgan said in a news release Friday. “Through awareness, action and allyship, we can foster a community where no one is left behind.” 

The Stop Tolerhating website has information about how Londoners can combat prejudice in their own lives and be allies to others who are facing hate.  

The website has tips for how bystanders who witness hate can intervene and strategies for dealing with hate online, at work or school and in social situations. The campaign encourages Londoners to speak up and address hate head on if they see it.  

Stop Tolerhating also has resources for Londoners who have experienced hate, including links to community supports for specific groups such as Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ, Muslim and Jewish residents.    

“London’s neighborhoods should be places of safety, not places of tension,” said London’s director of Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Sanjay Govindaraj. “We have the power to turn fear into hope and create a London where everyone can walk out their door without fear of harassment, judgment or violence.” 

Article content

The project was led by city hall’s anti-racism and anti-oppression division and completed with collaboration from several local organizations and consultations with equity-denied communities in London.  

London’s Stop Tolerhating campaign, which will include ads on digital billboards and at transit shelters in the city, will run until July 2025.  

The provincial government in June 2023 gave city hall $500,000 to support new programs to fight hate and racism. London city hall has since developed the Stop Tolerhating public awareness campaign and online resource hub. 

The province’s funding pledge came as London was commemorating the second anniversary of the murder of four members of the Afzaal family, who were struck and killed at a Hyde Park intersection because of their Muslim faith.  

Last November, Nathaniel Veltman was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Talat Afzaal, her son Salman Afzaal, his wife Madiha Salman and their daughter Yumnah Afzaal and one count of attempted murder of the youngest member of the Afzaal family. 

At his sentencing in February, the judge found Veltman’s crimes constituted terrorist activity.  

More information:

Website: www.london.ca/stoptolerhating 

Hashtag: #StopTolerhating 

Feedback and questions: arao@london.ca 

Article content