Previous Projects

UNI-PREV Québec is a UNESCO-PREV Chair initiative that focuses on the prevention of violent radicalization and extremism in Quebec universities. This project pursues a number of goals including the following:

1. To identify the perceptions and manifestations of violent radicalization and extremism in academic institutions;
2. To identify the challenges faced by institutions, administrative and teaching staff, and students;
3. To identify the strategies and measures implemented by universities;
4. To identify the specific needs of academic institutions regarding violent radicalisation and extremism;
5. To provide a series of recommendations and potential solutions to the ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur (MEES) in order to enhance its support and guide its institutional action.

The UNESCO-PREV Chair has initiated a research project documenting selected evaluation models in prevention of violent extremism. Conducted in collaboration with the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC), this research focuses on formal and informal evaluation models of several PVE programs in a variety of contexts.

Media coverage of terrorist attacks has long raised questions about the social responsibility of the media and the limits of public interest. These questions seem to be heightened by the current media environment, which advocates for instantaneous information and does not encourage journalistic analysis. Information professionals rely on available regulatory tools to help them deliver coverage that meets high professional ideals. In addition, recent years have seen a questioning of the effectiveness of self-regulation processes in the press and a search for alternative solutions to achieve better regulation of journalistic practices.

In this context, the project titled “Media Coverage of Violent Extremism: Professional Practices, Social Responsibilities and Ethics” offers a comparative analysis of the journalistic treatment of six (6) attacks perpetrated in six (6) countries and claimed by the Islamic State according to whether or not they respect the ethical principles recognized by the profession, these principles being set out in an analytical grid. In a second phase, the research team will meet with journalists in semi-structured interviews to gather feedback on the results of our press analysis and to discuss the issues they encountered while covering the attacks.

In 2019, Vivek Venkatesh, co-holder of the UNESCO-PREV Chair, was granted financial support by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO) to develop a toolkit to combat racial and social profiling. Designed for stakeholders in the fields of criminal justice, public safety and community development in Canada, the toolkit will include a background scan, a literature review, an analysis, a presentation, an op-ed article and adjustments based on critical feedback, including from civil society partners and municipal stakeholders who are part of the CCUNESCO networks.

Dialogue + proposed a series of public actions to re-energize ethno-cultural relations and encourage greater mobilization of young people, whether they were native Canadians or from different cultural communities.

These actions were supported by a versatile advisory committee, which included young people, stakeholders from various backgrounds and experts, as well as the Dialogue + team. They fell under three main components:

• A Canada-wide survey to assess Canadians’ perceptions of discrimination and radicalization;
• The creation of a “Youth in Action” committee; and
• The organization of public forums on intercultural dialogue in five (5) cities: Sherbrooke, Quebec City, Ottawa, Hamilton and Moncton.

SURVEY

The UNESCO-PREV Chair co-conducted the Dialogue + survey in partnership with Actions interculturelles and the governments of Canada and Quebec in the five (5) cities mentioned above. The activity measured the perception of the Canadian public and immigrant communities regarding (1) integration and (2) the risks of discrimination on the phenomena of exclusion and radicalization. The report was officially presented in February 2019.

YOUTH IN ACTION” COMMITTEE

The “Youth in Action” committee brought together young people between 15 and 30 years old who were involved in the Dialogue + project. Depending on their interest and motivation, they participated in activities that promoted dialogue and foster intercultural exchange.

FORUM DIALOGUE +

With the theme “Intercultural dialogue as a response to discrimination, prejudice and radicalization among young people”, the first Dialogue +Forum took place in March 2017 in Sherbrooke. Decision-makers, stakeholders and youth from all backgrounds were brought together to understand the issues, identify the challenges related to these issues, explore innovative courses of action and establish the basis of an action plan. The Dialogue + Forum is also held in our partner cities: Hamilton, Quebec City, Moncton and Ottawa.

Developed within the UNESCO-PREV Chair and supported by the Community Resiliency Fund of the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence and Public Safety Canada, the PREV-IMPACT Canada project aimed, through action research, to develop and implement Canadian models for assessing practices in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of violent radicalization (VR) and, ultimately, to build the capacity of key stakeholders in VR prevention in Canada.

The project sought to achieve two (2) key objectives, the first of which is to conduct action research that aimed to :

• Document and compare VR prevention assessment strategies and tools in Canada and elsewhere (France, Belgium, Switzerland, England, United States) based on evidence and existing practices;
• Develop distinct and innovative evaluation models (logic models, strategies, tools, indicators, methodology) adapted to local primary, secondary and tertiary prevention programs to guide VR prevention policies and programs in Canada;
• Test the evaluation models on three (3) Canadian VR prevention programs.

The development of an innovative support and training program on the assessment of VR prevention practices based on evidence-based logic models was the second objective of the PREV-IMPACT project. Its completion will contribute to the capacity building of key stakeholders in Canada through :

• Reciprocal exchanges, training and academic and professional development;
• Direct support to prevention assessment programs, particularly in school and community settings as well as in local communities.

Website: https://prev-impact.ca/en/

The SOMEONE (SOcial Media EducatiON Every day) initiative was launched in April 2016 and was funded by Employment and Social Development Canada and the Michaelle Jean Foundation. It consisted of a web-based portal of multimedia materials aimed at preventing hate speech and building resilience towards radicalization that leads to violent extremism.

The materials targeted youth, school and community members, public policy officials, as well as the broader public by focusing on the development of critical thinking and information literacy skills, and encouraging democratic dialogues in online and offline spaces.

Through twenty-one (21) distinct projects — all led by practicing researchers —, the initiative has seen the rigorous development and evaluation of curricular activities for elementary, secondary and post-secondary institutions. Such activities included, but were not limited to:

• first-person narrative documentaries
• textual and multimedia social media feeds
• visual art-based public pedagogical materials
• public panel discussions
• lectures and workshops
• academic articles and conference papers

Our work was framed in principles of social pedagogy which encouraged the inclusive adoption of mobile and digital media by members of the public to create alternative narratives to the divisive and violent messages propagated by hate groups. With the rise of hate speech both online and offline, it becomes increasingly urgent to ensure that social, public and curricular policies related to public safety, education and the common good are guided by empirical and theory-driven research such as that conducted by the Project SOMEONE’s team and its growing network of partners.

Landscape of Hope was a unique, sample-based remixing project that magnified youth narratives as they pertain to building resilience against racism, discrimination, prejudice and cyber bullying.

The digital art initiative was youth-led and designed to empower them with critical digital literacy skills and social media tools to create cutting-edge multimedia performances and installations that described their experiences with hate, discrimination and cyber bullying. Our aim was to implement and evaluate a sustainable, multi-sectoral, culturally-relevant, youth-led approach to creating media-based narratives that accurately reflected youths’ lived experiences, with the ultimate objective of reducing instances of discrimination.

This project was funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ), Canadian Heritage, and the Michaëlle Jean Foundation.

The Observatory on Radicalisation and Violent Extremism (OSR) and the Philosophy, Education and Society (PES) group launched a joint programme aimed at countering and defusing extremist discourse leading to violence: the Forum jeunesse — Penser la démocratie autrement[Youth Forum – Thinking Democracy Differently].

Each year, a different theme was suggested to stimulate discussion and democratic political participation among young people in their final years of high school or CEGEP. The initiative seeked to support ethics and religious culture teachers in high school and philosophy teachers at the college level. It also aimed to equip them in their integration of issues related to political extremism in the classroom.

THEMES

Read below to find out which themes were adopted since the launch of the project in 2015 in order to stimulate debate among young people:

• 2019-2020 : Is our era a time for dreaming?
• 2018-2019 : Identities, freedom and Political Violence
• 2017-2018 : Integration, discrimination and Political Violence
• 2016-2017 : Media, Propaganda and Radicalization
• 2015-2016 : Online Radicalization and Violent Extremism

ANNUAL YOUTH FORUM ROLL-OUT

Every school year, the Youth Forum – Thinking Democracy Differently was divided into three (3) distinct stages: :

• Use by teaching staff, in the manner deemed appropriate, of the various thematic toolkits provided;
• Organization of a conference with experts and in collaboration with the project administrators (OSR and PES) ; and
• Participation of students in a large youth forum at the end of the school year.