Security fund deadline extended after mosque shooting
The federal government has extended the application deadline for funding that helps improve security for communities at risk of hate crimes, in the aftermath of a deadly terrorist attack on a Quebec City mosque.
The Security Infrastructure program provides up to $100,000 for non-profit organizations to strengthen security. The Jan. 31 deadline has now been pushed back to March 31.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced the extension in his statement on the Quebec City mosque shooting on Monday.
“The call for applications under the Security Infrastructure Program was scheduled to close tomorrow. The Department of Public Safety will extend that deadline, so that places of worship, community centres, and educational institutions have a chance to re-examine their security infrastructure – and consider bolstering it,” he said.
Introduced in 2007, the fund provides up to a total of $1 million per year, on a 50-50 shared basis with at-risk organizations. To date, though, 202 non-profits have received a total of $4.1 million – far short of the total that’s available through the program.
“This program helps ensure community members can practice their faith, culture, and activities peacefully, without fear of harm,” Jean-Philippe Levert, spokesman for Public Safety Canada, said in an email response to Yahoo Canada News.
“Eligible recipients include places of worship, schools and community centers. It is not limited to religious institutions.”
Levert said program funds help cover the costs of minor security infrastructure enhancements such as outdoor lighting, fencing, and video surveillance.
Attacks on Jewish organizations and members of the Jewish faith still dominate Canadian hate crime statistics, but such attacks have decreased in recent years while attacks on Muslims have rapidly increased.
Police across Canada reported 1,295 hate crimes in 2014. That’s 3.7 incidents per 100,000 people. (For comparison, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation reported 3.2 hate crimes against Muslims alone per 100,000 people.)
Of those Canadian incidents reported in 2014, 429 were motivated by religion and 611 by race or ethnicity. Of the religious hate crimes, 99 were against Muslim people or organization, while 213 were anti-Semitic. Of the race crimes, 69 were against Arabs or West Asians, compared to 238 against Blacks, according to reports from Statistics Canada. The crimes range from homicide to uttering threats and vandalism.
The shifting target of hatemongers is reflected in the list of infrastructure security funding.
The mosque where a white Quebec man opened fire and killed six worshippers on Sunday night was previously targeted. A pig’s head was left on the front steps last year.
Last fall, someone set fire to garbage bins outside the South Nepean Muslim Community centre. It was not the first attack on the centre, which received $75,000 through the federal Infrastructure Security program to make safety improvements.
Two years earlier, a man inflicted $10,000 in damages to the Assunnah Muslim Association in Ottawa, in the weeks after Cpl. Nathan Cirillo was killed by an Islamic extremist as he guarded the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial. The Assunnah association has since received $50,000 through the fund.
No one from the National Council of Canadian Muslims was immediately available to comment, but the group warned in a 2014 report of an increase in anti-Islamic hate crime.
“The incidence of anti-Muslim hate crimes or incidents reported to [the National Council of Canadian Muslims], the Toronto Police, or in the media has risen sharply overall,” the report said.
The murders of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in Ottawa and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., in a deliberate hit-and-run two days earlier caused an immediate spike in attacks reported to the council, it noted. The incidents included an attack on a teenage girl by a 67-year-old man in Hamilton, Ont., and shots fired at a vehicle of five women wearing hijabs in Ottawa.
