2013 Hate Crimes Statistics

Interesting that in 2013, the number of hate crimes fell by 17 percent, reflecting a 30 percent decline in non-violent hate crimes (mainly mischief-related). For most groups, the per capita rate remained relatively constant, with the most notable decline with respect to Canadian Jews.

B’nai Brith statistics (2014 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents) however show an increase compared to earlier years (their statistics are always higher than police-reported hate crimes).

The National Council of Canadian Muslims recently launched a similar initiative to report on anti-Muslim incidents (NCCM Launches National Hate Crimes Awareness Project) to encourage more reporting (hate crimes against Canadian Muslims increased in this year).

The explanation for the overall decline in reported hate crimes is not clear beyond that it is the minor hate crimes that account for most of the decline.

While self-reporting by different groups is important to raising awareness of, and improving confidence within groups to report hate crimes to the police, there is merit to the consistent reporting  across different groups and categories contained in this report by Statistics Canada.