Ottawa's Hate Crimes Stats

A newly-released Statistics Canada report based on police-reported criminal incidents determined to have been motivated by hate toward an identifiable group indicates a decrease; the incidence nation-wide now stands at 4.1 in 100,000.  An 18% decrease from 2008 to 2010.  A holdout from the national decrease appears to be Ottawa, where the rate has remained static at 14 per 100,000.  Quite the differential.  What's wrong with Ottawa?

The head of the city's Diversity and Race Relations Section of the Ottawa Police feels a likely explanation to be the existence of its own hate crime unit.  Which engages with community members, schools and others to teach them how hate crimes may be identified.  "Some of that training obviously resulted in higher reports", said Staff Sgt. John Medeiros.

On the other hand, Ottawa is not unique in having special hate crimes units.  Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton have their own hate-crimes units.  And their rates of reported hate crime are consistently fewer than half of Ottawa's.  Moreover, according to the StatsCan report, all of the top eight cities for hate crimes in Canada are in southern Ontario.

One academic, Professor Barbara Perry, an expert in hate-crimes at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa feels that rapid cultural diversification may lead to a small minority of people committing violence.  "Those sorts of cultural clashes are a key reason for the violence", she states.  And law professor and human rights expert Errol Mendes at University of Ottawa agrees.

"Ottawa is rapidly becoming a multicultural city.  It's the nature of a changing society.  Both these experts feel that local police forces and community groups in Ottawa help to create an atmosphere where more hate crimes are reported.  The traditional group against which hate crimes are committed are Jews.  And it is no secret that there has been an increase in the incidence of anti-Semitism and violent acts against Jewish institutions.

The annual "Israeli Apartheid Week" held in universities not only criticizes and slanders Israel, but focuses on those who support Israel.  Jewish students at universities where the annual event is held report being harassed and ostracized, blamed and faulted for their support of a state that those who support the Palestinian cause claim oppresses them.

Anti-Semitism is so endemic and so deeply engrained among some segments of the population that a parliamentary committee was struck in the House of Commons to investigate its prevalence and advise the federal government how to proceed with taking steps to combat it.  A year ago the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism released its final report.

Because that particular discriminatory scourge was present, pervasive and seen to be increasing, it was felt a parliamentary committee might be able to identify measures to respond to the issue.  The report urged the federal government and law enforcement agencies to define anti-Semitism as a perception of Jews expressed as hatred in physical or rhetorical measures directed at individuals, their property, or the Jewish community and their religious institutions.  Recognizing that it can take the form of targeting Israel as a collective representing Judaism.


But the StatsCan report just issued appeared to focus on two other community groups; Muslim Canadians and the gay/transgendered community.  Which is an odd polarity of focus since gays within Islamic countries are hounded and persecuted, yet in Canada itself the gay community is supportive of "Palestinian rights".

The prejudices brought to Canada by immigrants whose culture and religion urges them to find fault with others in a pluralist society might simply redound on them.

The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations is adamant: "We encourage Canadian Muslims to report hate crimes.  A hate crime doesn't just target the individual or the community.  It has a ripple effect in terms of how that community is perceived and how they perceive themselves", according to Ihsaan Gardee, its executive director.

And Pink Triangle Services, an Ottawa charitable group supportive of the city's queer population provides services related to hate crimes.  Crisis counselling, discussion groups and educational training are all helpful educational programs offered to that community, yet it is claimed victims of hate-related incidents among the gay community hesitate to report them.

There are attempts in Ottawa to encourage inter-faith relationships and discussions.  The gay community lives openly and comfortably, with its own press and downtown neighbourhood where in general society they are accepted and treated in equable measures to any other group within society.  The reports of hate crimes are difficult to digest by most mainstream Canadians, no less Ottawans.

Unless the crimes reported really do revolve around the commission of violence linked to the perceptions of differences between people, it can be all too easy to attribute uncivil behaviour committed by louts to incidents of persecution.

And then there is the attitude among Muslims that they are being persecuted, when they cannot fathom why it is that most Canadians and the Government of Canada are loathe to welcome back with open arms someone like Omar Khadr.  Where opinions such as this: "He was born in Canada and he is a Canadian citizen.  Where else should he go?  No matter what he has been accused of, we should treat him like any other Canadian citizen, irrespective of his beliefs and the colour of his skin", indicating that the co-religionist who expressed that opinion has a rather confused relationship with justice and persecution.