Every year various police departments release figures which reflect the level of hate crimes perpetuated against particular groups in the previous year. These figures go into Statistics Canada (StatsCan), which then issues an annual report, supplying a national snapshot of hate crime in Canada.

The last reported year as of June 2014 was for 2012 (the information for 2013 is still being compiled). The figures show there were 82 more reported cases for that year than for the previous year, with a little over half of those being motivated by race or ethnicity.

StatsCan reported 51 per cent of reported cases were race-related, 30 per cent were based on religious belief, and 13 per cent were motivated by sexual orientation. The remaining six per cent of reported cases centred around language, political beliefs, age, gender, mental or physical disability and, rather surprisingly, occupation.

Sixty-nine per cent of all reported hate crimes were non-violent, meaning they involved vandalism, such as graffiti or damage to property (anti-Semitic slogans or swastikas on synagogues or other identifiably Jewish sites fall into this category, as does graffiti on mosques or churches and desecration of cemeteries, especially if the targeted cemetery is associated with a particular religious or ethnic group, such as Jewish or Muslim cemeteries or Chinese cemeteries).  A third of reported cases, or 31 per cent, involved some form of violence such as assault, criminal harassment, or uttering threats.

Perhaps most disturbing in an already disturbing scenario is, when it comes to hate crime based on sexual orientation, 67 per cent of those cases involved violence, often physical violence.

The StatsCan report revealed 51 per cent, or 704 cases, were motivated by race/ethnicity. A person’s religion accounted for 30 per cent or 419 cases, and sexual orientation came in at 13 per cent or 185 cases. The total number of reported hate crimes in Canada for 2012 came in at 1,414 incidents, representing 4.1 incidents for every 100,000 people in the population.

StatsCan not only tracks motivation, as listed above, but also types of offences. "Mischief" (specifically against religious property) accounted for 5.7 per cent of reported cases with unspecified "other mischief" accounting for 50.6 per cent. This could be, for instance, mischief against private or personal property, such as scrawling anti-gay graffiti or racial slurs across a garage door or a neighbour’s fence.

Public incitement to hatred, which is a Criminal Code offence under Section 319, accounted for 2.5 per cent of reported cases.  Common assault was the most prevalent, coming in at 10.3 per cent.  It needs to be noted here that, in this instance, we are not talking about common assault but common assault in the legal sense, as motivated by hate towards an identifiable group. Related to, but separate from that, was assault with a weapon causing harm at 5.6 per cent. Aggravated assault, however, which is a higher charge than common assault, came in at only 0.25 per cent, interestingly enough, with "other assault" being 0.5 per cent and "other violent offences" of whatever type coming in at 3 per cent.

Of all reported hate crimes 82 per cent, not surprisingly, occurred in major cities with Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto making up 35 per cent of those cases.

In Calgary, trends as reported in the Calgary Police Service’s Annual Statistical Report 2008-2012, indicated 56 hate/bias crimes were reported in 2012.  Just over half of those were motivated by race/ethnicity, 28.6 per cent (16 cases) of recorded incidents had a religious motivation (the highest incident count over the recorded five-year period), and nine of those cases were motivated by sexual orientation.

While incidents involving race/ethnicity show a decline over the last five years, incidents involving hate/bias around religion and sexual orientation show a steady increase over the same period.

Part of this is due to CPS monitoring hate/bias crime more closely in recent years, suggesting that the incidence of such crime may not be increasing, just the reporting of the crimes is.  It is also the view of CPS that hate/bias crime can be motivated in part by hate, bias, or prejudice and need not be the only motivation for the incident to be labeled a hate/bias crime.

As pointed out in the report, this distinction "can and will result in more cases being identified as hate/bias." In addition, the Diversity Resources Team, which includes the committee formerly known as the GLBTQ/Police Liaison Committee and other community-based committees, provides hate/bias crime education to affected communities and actively encourages the reporting of incidents or suspected incidents to police.

The CPS has come a long way in the last 20-odd years in relation to hate/bias crimes involving sexual orientation. At one time gay-bashing (the most common form of sexual orientation-directed crime) was lumped in with ‘street disturbance’ and, as a result, tracking it specifically as targeting the LGBTQ community was next to impossible; separate statistics simply were not available.

With the creation of the LGBTQ/Police Liaison Committee in about 1999 or so, this trend started to turn around, as did the awareness level within the CPS’ rank and file, thanks to a targeted training course for recruits and the expectation coming out of the Chief of Police’s Office that all officers would treat sexual orientation-related incidents with respect and the following of proper procedure in investigations, as well as during initial contact with the victim.

A corresponding awareness within the general population, when it comes to hate/bias crime, is more challenging especially, it seems, when it comes to cases involving sexual orientation. While great strides have been made in recent years with regard to civil rights and equality for lesbians and gay men this has, it has been argued, led to an increase in attacks against individuals who are, or perceived to be, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or trans. While this is disturbing on a host of levels, the upside – if one can call it that – is that along with a higher profile around LGBTQ issues comes a higher awareness that our community, specifically the individuals who make up that community, are being targeted in the same manner as someone being targeted for being a person of colour or a person of Jewish or Muslim faith.

If racism, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia are on the official radar and taken seriously by all levels of government and police, then so too should homophobic attacks and incidents. If there is any silver lining in this dark cloud of hate, it would be that finally our community is being granted the same respect, and protection, other communities are granted.