Hate crimes have increased nationally and within the Waterloo Region during the pandemic.
Released in March, the Statistics Canada Juristat report on police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2022, shows a 37 per cent increase of hate crimes nationally.
In Waterloo Region, there were 54 incidents of police-reported hate crimes in 2020, an increase of 260 per cent from 2019.
A report coming to the Waterloo Regional Police Service Board on Wednesday shows that in 2020, local patterns were consistent with national and provincial trends.
The majority, 83 per cent, of police-reported crimes motivated by hate in the region were non- violent, with 69 per cent of all incidents classed as “mischief” offences.
The majority of hate crimes were motivated by race and ethnicity with 41 incidents. Waterloo Region saw a decrease in police-reported hate crimes targeting sexual orientation (two incidents). The proportion of hate crimes motivated by religion (10 incidents) was similar to 2019.
Locally, crimes motivated by hate were most frequently directed toward the Black population with 25 incidents.
Mirroring national trends, for hate crimes motivated by religion, there was an increase in incidents that targeted the Jewish population and a decrease in incidents that targeted the Muslim population between 2019-2020. In 2020, of the hate crimes motivated by religion locally, 80% of those targeted the Jewish population.
Nationally, of the 1,594 police reported hate crimes in Canada, the majority, were motivated by a race or ethnicity. There was a decrease in police-reported hate crimes targeting religion with 515 incidents. Hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation (259 incidents) or other motivation (189 incidents) remained roughly consistent across 2019 and 2020.
Provincially, in 2020, there was an increase in police-reported hate crime, up 316 incidents from 2019 due to an increase in crime motivated by race or ethnicity. In Ontario, 60 per cent of police-reported hate crimes were motivated by race or ethnicity, 25 per cent were motivated by religion and 10 per cent were motivated by sexual orientation.
Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) are working to increase its expertise in identifying crimes motivated by hate.
In 2020, the WRPS Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) Unit began working with community agencies to educate and support the reporting of crime motivated by hate. In the Fall of 2020, the EDI Unit started to monitor hate incidents reported by both WRPS and community members.
According to police, awareness and reporting of crime motivated by hate in Waterloo Region will help advance the WRPS vision that “every person in Waterloo Region is safe and feels safe.”
