Hate crimes targeting Muslims rose sharply in 2015: StatCan

OTTAWA — Canadians are in denial about hate crimes, advocates said Tuesday, as Statistics Canada released new figures documenting a spike in police-reported incidents in 2015.

The agency reported crimes motivated by hate against the Muslim population rose by 61 per cent that year, with 159 incidents compared with 99 in 2014.

It said police documented 1,362 criminal incidents inspired by hate — an increase of five per cent, or 67 more incidents, over the previous year.

“The number of hate crimes presented in this release likely undercounts the true extent of hate crime in Canada, as not all crimes are reported to police,” Statistics Canada said.

The agency did say in 2015 that police services increased outreach to ethnic groups and, in addition, the National Council of Canadian Muslims tried to encourage reporting of hate crimes to police.

A spokesperson for the organization, Amira Elghawaby, said Tuesday that former prime minister Stephen Harper’s decision to focus on the use of face coverings at citizenship ceremonies during the 2015 election campaign contributed to discrimination against Muslim women. “You can almost immediately see the moment that Mr. Harper started talking about the face veil, we immediately started getting reports of women being harassed in Canada,” she said during a news conference on Parliament Hill. “We can’t make a direct link per se but … certainly it was a factor.”

Of the hate crimes reported to police, 48 per cent were motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity, 35 per cent were motivated by hatred of a religion and 11 per cent targeted sexual orientation.

Speaking outside the House of Commons on Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the trend in the numbers “deeply troublesome.”