Hate crimes – especially those against Jews – jumped significantly in 2009, according to Canadian police forces.
Statistics Canada said hate crimes reported to police increased by 42 per cent, rising to more than four incidents a day from less than three a day in 2008.
While there were increases in all three main categories of hate crimes, those motivated by race, religion and sexual orientation, incidents sparked by religion rose by 55 per cent.
Most religiously motivated clashes involved Jews, with the number of incidents rising 71 per cent between 2008 and 2009.
In a report released Tuesday, Stat scan said most of the increases in police-reported hate crimes happened in four cities: Ottawa, Toronto, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo and Montreal.
In all, Canadian police reported 1,473 hate crimes in 2009, up from 1,036 a year earlier. The 42 per cent increase follows a 35 per cent jump between 2008 and 2007.
Of the hate crimes reported to police in 2009, Stats can said 54 per cent were motivated by race or ethnicity, 29 per cent by religion and 18 per cent by sexual orientation.
The report is based on incidents reported to police that were determined to have been motivated by hate toward an identifiable group.
However, as Statistics Canada noted, the number of hate crimes “can be influenced by the public’s willingness to report incidents to police as well as local police service practices and awareness campaigns.”
Statistics on police-reported hate crimes have been collected since 2006 from police forces covering 87 per cent of the Canadian population.
As in previous years, 7 in 10 religiously-motivated hate crimes were committed against the Jewish faith in 2009. Police reported 283 such hate crimes in 2009, up 71% from 2008.
Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2009
Table 1
Police-reported hate crimes, by type of motivation
Table 2
