Greater Sudbury Police reported three hate crimes in the city between 2014 and 2016, according to information released this week by Statistics Canada.
That figure compares to two crimes reported in Barrie during the same time, and a whopping 53 in Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay was third highest in Ontario, behind only Hamilton and Ottawa in 2016. Thunder Bay had an average of 8.3 incidents per 100,000 people, compared to Hamilton's 12.5 and Ottawa's 9.5. Sudbury's rate in 2016, when there were two reports, was 1.2. Canada-wide, the rate was 3.9.
In Canada, four offences are listed as hate crimes in the Criminal Code: advocating genocide;
- public incitement of hatred;
- willful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group; and,
- mischief motivated by hate in relation to religious property.
In 2016, police across the country reported 1,409 criminal incidents that were motivated by hate, an increase of three per cent or 47 more incidents than reported in 2015.
The increase in the total number of incidents was largely attributable to an increase in police-reported hate crimes motivated by hatred of a sexual orientation, which increased by 35 incidents compared to a year earlier, or of a race or ethnicity, which increased by 25 incidents.
Bigger picture, hate crimes accounted for less than 0.1 per cent of the nearly 1.9 million police-reported crimes in 2016, excluding traffic offences.
Some other facts from the StatsCan report:
- Police-reported hate crimes targeting sexual orientation rose 25 per cent in 2016 to 176 incidents, compared with 141 incidents in 2015.
- These incidents accounted for 13 per cent of hate crimes reported in 2016 and 11 per cent of hate crimes reported in 2015.
Between 2015 and 2016, the number of police-reported crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity increased four per cent, from 641 to 666. In all, 48 per cent of all police-reported hate crimes in 2016 were motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity. Much of this increase was a result of more hate crimes targeting South Asians (up by 24 incidents) and Arabs and West Asians (up by 20 incidents).
Despite posting a decrease in 2016, crimes targeting black populations remained one of the most common types, accounting for 15 per cent of all hate crimes.
Overall, 33 per cent of hate crimes reported in 2016 were motivated by hatred of religion. Compared with 2015, the number of hate crimes motivated by religion decreased two per cent in 2016 (from 469 in 2015 to 460 in 2016).
Police-reported crimes motivated by hate against the Jewish population rose from 178 incidents in 2015 to 221 incidents in 2016, and increase of 24 per cent. In contrast, the number of crimes targeting the Catholic population fell from 55 to 27 incidents. Similarly, crimes targeting the Muslim population decreased 13 per cent, from 159 incidents in 2015 to 139 incidents in 2016.
According to the 2016 Census data, 22.3 per cent of Canadians reported being members of a visible minority group, an increase of three percentage points since the 2011 National Household Survey.
Aboriginal people comprised 4.9 per cent of the population in 2016, up from 4.3 per cent in 2011. The proportion of people who reported religious affiliations other than Christianity has also grown. In 2011, 7.2 per cent of the Canadian population identified as Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist compared to 4.9 per cent in 2001. The Jewish population has remained stable at one per cent.
