Alberta anti-hate organization launching community outreach initiative in southern Alberta

By ZOE MASON on September 20, 2025.

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zmason@medicinehatnews.com

Alberta anti-hate organization StopHateAB has received a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage to introduce an Anti-Hate Outreach Project to multiple regions across the province, including southern Alberta.

StopHateAB aims to combat hate through education, awareness, research and advocacy. Their work aims to support victims of hate on the basis of race, faith, disability, and sexual orientation.

The new funding will be directed to the establishment of several anti-hate coalitions, including one in Medicine Hat.

“The concept is, we’re doing some background work on understanding what type of hate is prevalent within the community, where there’s barriers, where there are existing anti-hate initiatives or supports,” said Nina Saini, executive director of StopHateAB.

Then, the organization will establish a committee of community members, institutions and non-profits to create goals and priorities based on the specific needs of the region.

“We don’t want to come into a community and tell them what they need and provide an essentially ineffective initiative. We’re essentially there to facilitate this coalition,” said Saini.

“This is a community-oriented, co-designed concept. So with the conversations that the community engagement specialists will be having within the community, they’ll be able to identify who needs what to combat hate in the region.”

Examples of initiatives that the committee might take include awareness events, community intervention training or policy asks.

The Medicine Hat anti-hate committee will be established by early 2026. StopHateAB intends to finish at least one initiative in the area by March 31.

“We are seeing, whether it’s globally or community-wide, a rise of hate. So we do need to put something together in order to minimize its uprise and keep our community safe and protected and have people feel included.”

Anyone interested in becoming a representative on the committee or influencing the committee’s anti-hate priorities in Medicine Hat, can contact StopHateAB’s community engagement specialist, Jenny Mae Smith.

Saini encourages anyone who has experienced a hate-motivated incident to report it using StopHateAB’s community reporting tool on their website.