For the first time in several years, police-reported hate crime has dropped across Canada.
The number of reported hate crimes went from 2,073 in 2017 to 1,798 last year according to a Statistics Canada report released on Monday. That's a 15 per cent drop but it remained at its second-highest level since 2009.
Hate crime had been rising steadily in Canada since 2014 up until last year.
The government agency said hate crime against race, religion, sexual orientation, language, and disability have all decreased. However, hate crime against gender, age and other factors such as profession or political beliefs have increased.
The Windsor area had hate crime drop from 19 in 2017 to 6 in 2018. In London, hate crime went up from 26 to 34 during the same period.
B’nai Brith is reporting that Jews were the most targeted group for hate crimes in 2018, a trend continuing from the previous two years. In total, police across Canada reported 347 hate crimes targeting Jews in 2018, down marginally from the 2017 figure of 360. However, anti-Jewish hate crimes amounted to 19 per cent of the national total, even though Jews account for only about 1 per cent of the Canadian population. In 2017, anti-Jewish hate crimes had constituted 17 per cent of the national total.
“Figures released by StatsCan demonstrate that antisemitic hate crimes remain an urgent concern, with one occurring almost every day of the year on average,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “That is why we urge federal, provincial and municipal governments across the country to take serious steps to combat antisemitism, such as adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism for greater clarity.”
The second most targeted group in 2018 were Blacks with 283 reported hate crimes, followed by hate crimes targeting Muslims and people based on their sexual orientation with 173 each.
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network tweeted out that this isn't a measure of overt racism/bigotry in Canada and the real number is 20 to 100 times larger, according to the General Social Survey - Victimization (StatsCan).
Statistics Canada reported last year that police-reported hate crimes jumped by 47 per cent in 2017 across Canada largely due to an increase in crimes against Muslims, Jewish, and Black populations.
Hate crimes refer to criminal offences motivated by bias, prejudice, or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or any other similar factor, such as profession or political beliefs.
