British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma says the province’s racist-incident hotline has received about 600 calls since its launch less than a year ago.
Sharma says the calls resulted in about 1,600 incidents being referred to support agencies, with most reports coming from urban centres, although there’s been an uptick in calls from rural areas in the first three months of this year.
Sharma says it’s hoped that nobody would ever have to use the helpline, set up last May, but that’s not the “reality out there in the province.”
She says the number of calls is on par with California, which has a similar resource, but a much larger population.
Sharma says she’s “comforted” knowing people who report racism are getting support they need after doing so, and says she wants “people to know that this helpline is out there for them.”
The Ministry of the Attorney General says calls came from adults, seniors and children as young as sixth grade.
It says most incidents occurred “at the workplace, in interactions with service providers, in a public space, at home or around neighbours.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2025.
