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North America Regional Hub: City-Led Hate Prevention in Times of Global Crises — The Brampton Experience   

Publication Date:

09/06/2025

Content Type:

Event Reports

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BramptonCity-Led PreventionGlobal Criseshate preventionNorth America Regional HubPeel RegionWhole-of-Society PreventionYouth Empowerment and Engagement

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The Brampton Experience   

This report provides a summary of discussions during the event and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Event Details

Description: Strong Cities hosted a workshop in Brampton (Ontario, Canada) for municipal officials and staff, representatives from civil society organisations and prevention practitioners from across the Peel Region. The two-day event was hosted in partnership with the City of Brampton and the Foundation for a Path Forward and with support from Canadian Heritage. The workshop served as an opportunity for senior officials from the City of Brampton and the wider Peel Region, as well as community, provincial and federal partners, to discuss the state of hate and social polarisation in Brampton and elsewhere in the region and the roles of each stakeholder in operationalising a multi-level, whole-of-society approach to prevention and response.  

Where & When: 9 — 10 June 2025,  Brampton (Ontario, Canada)

Municipalities Represented

• Brampton (Ontario, Canada)
• Mississauga (Ontario, Canada) 

Partners Represented

• Canadian Heritage  
• Canada Center for Safer Communities 
• Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, Ontario Tech University 
• CIVIX 
• ETA Ontario 
• Foundation for a Path Forward 
• Interfaith Council of Peel  
• Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General Office 
• Peel Regional Police 
• Public Safety Canada  
• Safe City Mississauga 
• Victim Services of Peel 

Key Takeaways

For Elected Leaders

• Maintain relationships with faith leaders and communities outside times of crisis, so that they can reduce tensions as a trusted partner when needed.   
• Speak out frequently, emphatically and proactively about the need for collaborative hate prevention frameworks so that there is greater awareness of and support for this type of work and so communities are prepared to navigate crises. 
• Invite practitioners and agencies working on prevention, community wellbeing and law enforcement to the table together, so that they learn how these domains go hand in hand. This is not just about building trust and capacity across sectors but creating an understanding that these sectors share ownership of both the problem and the solution and are all needed to build effective hate prevention programming and policy.  
• Stay aware of promising practices being implemented not just in similar municipalities, but across the globe so that practices that could make a difference do not go overlooked. Additionally, make sure to consult with local communities to tailor these practices to their specific needs and contexts. 
• Use your status in the community to model productive online discourse and to encourage community members to report hate incidents, not just hate crimes. Many may feel that reporting incidents could be a waste of time for law enforcement, but tracking and responding to incidents is essential to understanding the hate landscape and intervening before conflicts rise to the level of crimes.  

For Municipalities

• Strengthen existing and develop new community partnerships and collaborations to counter hate effectively.  As municipalities grapple with increasingly complex threats both online and offline, partnerships become essential to early intervention and sustained impact. These relationships require consistent engagement and mutual trust to be sustained over time and through conflict. 
• Expand and deepen collaboration across local government departments, civil society, law enforcement and community institutions. This is essential for building strong coalitions and developing inclusive policies that have support from local communities. 
• Devote special attention to both public messaging and dedicated outreach to local communities on prevention to ensure hate prevention programmes have their desired outcomes. This means, for example, local governments should tailor their efforts to reach marginalised and underrepresented communities who may be most at risk but least likely to be engaged through traditional channels. 
• Prioritise digital literacy education, particularly for youth, so that they are more aware of how to respond to emerging forms of online hate and radicalisation. Digital hate disproportionately affects youth and marginalised communities, and these stakeholders need to be prioritised when it comes to addressing online harms and prevention more broadly. 
• Intensify efforts to foster belonging, encourage collective resilience, and support residents with tools and frameworks to report hate when they encounter it, as such efforts can promote a sense of connection to help build social cohesion, reduce isolation and create environments where residents are more likely to look out for one another and stand against hate in all its forms. 
• Support vulnerable communities through public events that raise awareness for victims and targeted hate and harassment, and policies that protect gathering places such as measures preventing violent protests outside places of worship.

Next Steps

Strong Cities continues to expand its work in Canada, launching Prevention Academy Canada in July of 2025, and a second Prevention Academy for British Columbia Municipalities on Countering Online Harms set to launch in September 2025. The year will conclude with the Strong Cities Sixth Global Summit in Toronto this December. To stay up to date on upcoming webinars, events and project launches, sign up for Strong Cities Network’s mailing list. 

Additional Resources

• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network (updated March 2025) 
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation (see Navigating Difficult Issues), Strong Cities Network (updated March 2025) 
• A Ten-Step Roadmap for Enhancing City-Led Support for Community-Based Programmes to Address Hate and Extremism, Strong Cities Network (February 2025) 
• Community Resilience Study: Kumanovo, North Macedonia, Strong Cities Network (updated February 2025) 
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network (updated February 2025) 
• Bridging Differences Playbook, Greater Good Science Center & Bridging Differences (February 2025) 
• Countering Hate Speech in Times of Crisis: Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network (December 2024) 
• European Citizens’ Panel on Tackling Hatred in Society: Final Report, European Commission (October 2024)   
• A Practical Guide to Youth Capacity Building for Countering Hate and Extremism, Strong Cities Network (updated September 2024) 

Partners and Donors

We are grateful to our partners at the Foundation for a Path Forward and Canadian Heritage for partnering with us for this event. 

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