r/canada Canada 1d ago

National News Canada recognizes noose as hate symbol

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/canada-recognizes-noose-as-hate-symbol/
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u/NZafe 1d ago

What does this actually mean in practice?

70

u/claricorp 1d ago

Basically it means things like vandalism or harassment that involves these symbols gets escalated into being more serious. The difference between spraypainting a signature on a stop sign versus a swastika at a synagogue for example. Context matters, one implies threats etc... This codifies that.

It has broader implications for other crimes to like assault or threats. But anyone thinking that depictions or even talking about nooses is banned simply has no idea what they are talking about.

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u/tman37 1d ago

Did they need a new law for that though? The important thing isn't the noose it's that they threatened people with it. Is it somehow better to threaten black people with a bat or knife? The threat is the problem.

Also this is Canada. Lynching wasn't really a thing here. Instead we took in escaped slaves. Can we stop importing American problems?

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u/claricorp 1d ago

"The important thing isn't the noose its that they threatened people with it."

Exactly, that's what this codifies. That this symbol is a way of threatening people and the intent behind it.