Rob Breakenridge: Cops have better things to do than police social media
By Jesse Kline
National Post · 1d ago
Edmonton police should be investigating actual crimes, rather than wasting time on online speech
It’s become apparent that dealing with hate-motivated crimes is now a part of the increased burden being placed upon police forces across the country.
Within the last couple of weeks, for example, we’ve seen a suspected arson at a Jewish restaurant in Montreal, along with gunshots and vandalism targeting two locations of a Jewish bakery in Toronto. Over the weekend in Saskatoon, a synagogue and numerous vehicles parked outside were vandalized — while the Saturday prayer service was in progress.
In addition, police have had to deal with serious terrorism threats. In Toronto last month, terrorism charges were laid in connection with public statements made by an individual at two separate pro-Palestinian demonstrations that police say advocated for “harm against members of the Israeli and Jewish communities.”
Late last year in Edmonton — on back-to-back days, no less — police arrested and charged two separate individuals in connection with threats toward the Jewish community.
However, there’s an important distinction to be made between criminal threats or promoting hatred, and offensive, yet non-criminal, comments, jokes or insults. It’s strange that this would have to be pointed out. Yet, as we’ve seen with a recent controversy involving the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), this is not as obvious as it should be.
If we allow the concept of “hate” to be watered down, then the term becomes sapped of its meaning. If we allow non-criminal matters to become the purview of the police, we’re putting ourselves on a worrisome path.
This approach risks both undermining the cause against genuine hatred while also undermining the principle of free expression. We’ve seen, for example, in the United Kingdom, where this slippery slope has led to troubling outcomes. In fact, British authorities are now pulling back from police investigations into “non-crime hate incidents.”
Fortunately, we now have the opportunity to pull back ourselves before we go too far down this path and before any real damage is done.
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This whole issue was thrust to the forefront last weekend, when EPS posted a video to social media that encouraged citizens to report hate and cited some examples of various social media comments, including things like “send them back home,” and other calls for deportations.
The EPS is also running a campaign urging people to report hate-motivated incidents, even though they explicitly acknowledge that a “hate motivated incident” is a “non-criminal action.” The examples provided in the online form for submitting such a report include “verbal insults (name-calling, offensive jokes) and slurs.”
The attention and backlash to the video and the campaign prompted a response from the Alberta government and a clear statement that it is not on board with this approach.
Premier Danielle Smith herself took to social media to declare that: “We don’t believe in policing unpopular or religious-based statements even if they are controversial. That’s a slippery slope other countries have fallen into and we can’t go down that road.
“Our Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services, Mike Ellis, will be writing to our provincial and municipal policing providers to ensure they understand Albertans’ policing priorities should focus on violent crimes, illegal drugs, theft and vandalism…not people’s free speech.”
It’s not a conflict to oppose hateful speech while still standing up for lawful and free expression, even if the premier’s comments may have been lacking in the former. It makes no sense for police to be monitoring social media for offensive but non-criminal comments.
The EPS is actually not the first Canadian police force to tread down this path. Durham Region recently became the latest Ontario municipality to establish a program to monitor and urge reporting of “non-criminal hate incidents,” using much the same criteria and definition as the EPS.
As a practical matter, there are limited resources available to both the police and the legal system. There are also more than enough hate-motivated crimes being committed to keep police and the courts busy, not to mention all of the other crimes that warrant the legal system’s attention. Edmonton, like other Canadian cities, has seen increases in social disorder and overall crime in recent years.
Moreover, the perception that police are prioritizing name-calling and offensive jokes over catching actual criminals is not the sort of thing that helps with overall public confidence in law enforcement. Further erosion of that trust is less than ideal right now.
When it comes to the criminal law, there should be — and is — a high bar for investigating and prosecuting online speech. As we’ve seen — and continue to see, sadly — hate-motivated crimes are a real problem, one that police are being forced to respond to.
Lowering that bar, and doing so at the expense of civil liberties, will only do the cause of combating actual hate a disservice.
National Post
rob.breakenridge@gmail.com
Rob Breakenridge is a Calgary-based podcaster and writer. He can be found at robbreakenridge.ca.
Originally published by National Post.