Mayor speaks at online harms summit

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett joined local leaders from around the world this week at a summit to learn how cities are preventing and responding to rising levels of hate, extremism and polarization.

The Strong Cities Network Sixth Global Summit brought more than 200 leaders to Toronto for the three-day event. Fawcett was one of the mayors asked to speak as part of a panel discussion on how local governments are responding to online harms.

Fawcett gave examples such as the June 10 sword attack at École secondaire Neelin High School and past attempts at book bans in Brandon schools as incidents that had online aspects.

“Listening to people from all over the world, it reminds us that there’s no borders on any of this,” Fawcett said. “The things that we deal with are no different than in Morocco, in Ireland, in Uganda.

“We have things to share. We have things to learn.”

Fawcett’s panel also included the mayors of Savannah, Ga., and Quelimane, Mozambique, the deputy mayor of Strasbourg, France, and the former mayor of Pittsburgh, Pa.

“I’ve been able to have good discussions with a lot of people about things that are going on in their communities,” Fawcett told the Sun Thursday.

Online hate crimes have “no boundaries,” and are experienced in cities in North America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, all of which had a lot of representation at the event, he said.

One thing that stuck out to him, he said, was the worldwide epidemic of loneliness.

There was one conversation based on how to get people engaged in their communities, Fawcett said, and how to work with people in your city to prevent loneliness.

He said this summit helps show that Brandon isn’t alone, and there are other cities to look at to develop best practices.

Stephanie Spence, a researcher at Brandon University, said the summit also helped her with research at The Story Grounds BU research lab.

“There was a lot of incredible presentations happening. So there was a lot to learn around different innovative strategies and approaches for protecting communities in the context of rising hate and polarization and other threats to social cohesion,” Spence, who is also studying at the University of Victoria, told the Sun from her hotel in Toronto.

The research she does is largely around anti-racism, polarization and hate.

Part of what she heard was a presentation about how some misinformation in local platforms are actually from foreign operations that are targeting local governments.

Spence said a lot of what she was able to accomplish at the summit was networking, which can help her future work.

“When we get all of these people with the same goals all in one room, it’s an incredibly powerful and inspiring thing to be a part of,” Spence said.

“It definitely brings about a lot of hope, and it makes me excited for the future.”

The summit ran from Tuesday to Thursday.

» alambert@brandonsun.com