New StatsCan report shows rise in police-reported hate crimes

Hate crimes reported by police across the country increased by seven per cent in 2022, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

There were almost 2,000 reported incidents in Canada targeting a race or ethnicity in 2022 — a 12 per cent increase from the year before.

Hate crimes involving sexual orientation also increased 12 per cent.

A hate crime is defined as a crime that targets certain social groups, ethnicity, and gender, such as racism and homophobia.

Warren Silver, an analyst with the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, says this was the third consecutive rise. Overall, between 2019 and 2022, there was an 83 per cent increase in reported hate crimes.

In B.C., Silver says, hate crimes increased from 70 in 2021 to 80 in 2022.

“The majority of crimes that were reported in B.C. were non-violent,” he said. “They were things like destruction of property and graffiti, as opposed to assaults.”

Henry Yu with the Centre for Asian Canadian Research Engagement says greater awareness is helping.

“The increased awareness of hate crimes has led to people being more comfortable reporting to police, because they are seeing it happening to other people.”

According to a report from the Vancouver Police Department released earlier this year, the department investigated over 260 hate crimes in 2023, which is a 31 per cent increase from the previous year.