Hate crimes up 37 per cent in 2020, other crime down: Statistics Canada

New data from Statistics Canada show the number of hate crimes reported to police across the country went up 37 per cent in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the previous year.

The agency says 2,669 hate crimes were reported in 2020 — the highest number since comparable data became available in 2009.

That's even as the report shows the overall rate of police-reported crime, excluding traffic offences, dropped 10 per cent from 2019 to 2020.

Statistics Canada says police-reported hate crimes targeting race or ethnicity rose 80 per cent in 2020 compared with 2019 and accounted for the bulk of the national increase.

It says reported hate crimes targeting East or Southeast Asian people went up 301 per cent; those targeting Black people went up 92 per cent; those against Indigenous people went up 152 per cent; and those against South Asian people went up 47 per cent.

The report says the highest increases in police-reported hate crimes were in Nova Scotia (70 per cent), British Columbia (60 per cent), Saskatchewan (60 per cent), Alberta (39 per cent) and Ontario (35 per cent).

No rise was reported in Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick or the Northwest Territories, but the report notes the relatively small population counts and number of hate crimes in the territories usually make year-over-year comparisons less reliable.

Both violent and non-violent hate crimes increased compared with 2019 and contributed “fairly equally” to the overall rise in hate crimes in 2020, Statistics Canada says.

Hate crimes targeting religion declined for the third year in a row following a peak in 2017, the report says. But the 515 incidents reported in 2020 are still higher than what was recorded annually before 2017, it says.

The Jewish and Muslim populations continue to be the most common targets of religion-based hate crimes, it says.

There was a two-per-cent decrease in reported hate crimes targeting sexual orientation in 2020, but the 259 incidents reported are the second highest since comparable data became available in 2009, the agency says.

 Statistics Canada says the increase in hate crimes reported in 2020 may still underestimate the number of incidents, given that not all are reported to police.

According to the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), local crimes motivated by hate were up almost 44 per cent between 2020 and 2021.

Broken down further, OPS said 148 of the incidents reports in 2021 were mischief to property, which was about a 68 per cent increase from the year before.

This is followed by level 1 assaults, which had 26 reported incidents — up about 44 per cent since 2020.

Uttering threats to a person had 20 calls to service, results in an 11 per cent increase compared to the year prior; and a 150 per cent increase was observed in mischief hate culture when 15 cases were reported, up from six.

Add the 10 calls for service involving assault with a weapon, and there was a total of 260 hate motivate crimes in Ottawa in 2021.

The group who reported the most incidents were Jewish individuals with 64 calls for service.

This was followed by Black individuals with 47 and homosexual individuals with 24.

East and Southeast Asian groups reported 21 incidents while Arab and West Asian group reported 18.

In all, OPS had a clearance rate of 26.7 per cent, which is up over 5.5 per cent from 2020.

– With files from CityNews' Dani-Elle Dubé