Statistics Canada Report on Police-reported Hate Crimes

Statistics Canada today published a report on Police-reported hate crimes, 2013.

The report compiles stats on criminal incidents that, upon investigation by police, are determined to have been motivated by hate toward an identifiable group based on race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, language, sex, age, mental or physical disability, or other factors such as profession or political beliefs.

In 2013, police across Canada recorded 3.3 hate crimes per 100,000 population. This represented a 17% drop from 2012.

"In 2013, three primary motivations accounted for 95% of hate crimes. Hate crime motivated by hatred of race or ethnicity represented about half (585 or 51%) of all hate crime incidents, followed by religious hate crimes (326 or 28%) and crimes motivated by hatred of a sexual orientation (186 or 16%) ..."

"Although the number of hate crimes reported by police declined from 2012, some characteristics of these crimes remained constant. For example, among hate crimes related to race or ethnicity, Black populations were still the most frequently targeted (22% of hate crimes of all types). For religiously motivated hate crime, there has also been little change over time, with hate crimes targeting Jewish populations still the most common (16% of hate crimes of all types)."

"Overall, the majority (60%) of hate-motivated crimes reported by police involved non-violent offences. Mischief, which includes vandalism, graffiti and other forms of property destruction, was the most commonly reported offence among police-reported hate crimes, making up half of all hate crime incidents. This was especially true for religious hate crimes, where 72% were mischief offences."