As part of the development of the Réseau d’échange et de soutien aux actions locales (Network for exchange and local action support, RÉSAL)’s community of practice, an organization of which the ICPC is a member and the coordinator, a third training session of a series of activities planned this fall was held on November 4th. It focused on online hate prevention and aimed to familiarize the participants with the concepts of radicalization leading to violence and of hate-motivated acts. It also addressed various extremist expressions on social media, presented the existing initiatives and tools in the fight against online hate, and shared inspiring attitudes to face online hate.
The activity was hosted by Anne-Sophie Bedziri and Jeanne Plisson, advisors at the Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence (CPRLV) on issues and challenges related to radicalization leading to violence.
Among the highlights of the workshop, there were:
- The importance of properly deconstructing the vocabulary (radicalization, extremism, terrorism) to use it well. Radicalization itself can lead to social progress and positive actions and doesn’t necessarily imply violence.
- The many forms that hate-motivated acts can take: hate-motivated incidents, hate speech, and hate crimes. While the latter falls under the jurisdiction of the law, it is still difficult to fight hate-motivated incidents and hate speech under current legislative measures.
- Multiple resources can be combined to limit radicalization leading to violence and hate-motivated acts online. Expressing interest in the youth involved in these phenomena, encouraging doubt, and reinforcing protective factors, are important considerations for field workers.
More information about other training sessions offered:
Violence prevention in street gangs
Street work and youth intervention
These training sessions were carried out with the financial support of the City of Montreal.