Indigenous people more likely to face discrimination in Hamilton, survey finds

Indigenous people experience more discrimination than any other ethnic group in Hamilton, suggests the findings of a new survey released Tuesday.

The nine-month survey, federally funded and commissioned by the Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council (HIPC), took a representative sample of 784 residents that reported recent experiences with discrimination.

More than two-thirds of Indigenous respondents and 60 per cent of immigrant and visible minority respondents said they had been subject to discrimination over the past three years - compared to just half of white, non-immigrant participants.

These findings point to everyday of occurrences of discrimination and the specific settings in which it manifests," Lily Lumsden, HIPC chair, said in a press release. HIPC will continue to educate around the harmful effects of discrimination and to take actions to combat it."

The survey - made in partnership with seven other Southwestern Ontario immigration groups and Western University's Network for Economic and Social Trends (NEST) - also examined where the reported discriminatory acts took place.

Discrimination against immigrant, racialized and Indigenous groups most often occurred in employment settings and public places like parks, sidewalks and transit, said Victoria Esses, NEST director and a professor of psychology at Western. Indigenous respondents frequently experienced discrimination when looking for housing, she added, while immigrants and racialized respondents found it most prevalent in schools.

It is important to have these detailed data on where exactly discrimination is occurring in order to develop effective strategies for counteracting discrimination in these settings," Esses said in the release.

Hamilton routinely ranks among the top Canadian cities for hate incidents, with an average of 121 police-reported incidents per year over the last eight years. In 2020, there were 80 hate incidents reported, a drop from 92 in 2019.

City staff are expected to present an action plan for hate prevention and mitigation to the city's general issues committee Wednesday.

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com