Hate-related incidents in Hamilton increased 35 per cent last year
Those most frequently victimized were members of Black, Jewish and LGBTQ communities
Hamilton saw a 35 per cent increase in hate/bias incidents last year as arrests for hate-motived crimes nearly tripled, police say.
Of the 108 hate/bias incidents reported in 2021, 49 were directly tied to race and ethnicity, 38 to religion, 19 to sexual orientation and two to gender identity, according to a report presented to the police services board Thursday.
While the figure marks the most hate/bias incidents in the city since 2018, it is consistent with historical trends: police have seen an annual average of 108.2 incidents reported over the past five years.
But the true number of hate incidents during that time could be much higher, given many occurrences go unreported, Det. Fabiano Mendes of the hate-crime unit warned the board.
“People may feel the crime was not important or the chances of police apprehending the suspect are low,” Mendes said. “Some victims see the incident as a personal matter since it may involve family members or colleagues, or sometimes there may be a feeling of blame or embarrassment about being targeted.”
The groups most frequently victimized by hate/bias incidents in 2021 were members of the Black, Jewish and LGBTQ communities, according to the report.
Nearly one-third of all hate/bias incidents last year targeted Black people, an increase of around six per cent over 2020, the report states. Hate/bias incidents targeting members of the South Asian community doubled from four in 2020 to eight in 2021.
There were 24 hate/bias incidents targeting the Jewish community and 14 targeting the Muslim community in 2021.
Incidents targeting people’s sexual orientation also saw a sharp increase in 2021. There were 19 hate/ bias occurrences against people who identify as gay, according to the report.
Meanwhile, hate/bias crimes — occurrences where there is evidence to prove that the offence was motivated solely by a person’s bias and prejudice toward a victim — hit a five-year high in 2021.
Twenty-one of the 108 hate/bias incidents last year were categorized as hate crimes, up significantly from eight each in 2020 and 2019 and five each in 2018 and 2017.
Hate-crime-related arrests also saw a spike, nearly tripling from five in 2020 to 14 in 2021. One of those arrests came last August when police charged a 26-year-old man with wilfully promoting hate after he allegedly posted Islamophobic messages on social media. It was the first time Hamilton police ever laid the rare charge, which requires approval from the attorney general and has a maximum sentence of two years.
Mendes attributed the rise in local hate/bias incidents to a multitude of factors.
Heightened training for the hatecrime unit helped police to identify and classify more incidents, he said, while outreach work in the community helped more residents feel comfortable reporting their experiences. He added other factors to consider were the COVID-19 pandemic, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the increase in alt-right ideology, and the senseless killing of a Muslim family in London, Ont.
Not covered in the data presented at Thursday’s meeting were two hate/bias-related incidents this week that Chief Frank Bergen made a point of referencing. They include a Confederate flag seen hanging from a home in Binbrook and an offensive email received by the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI) containing several racial slurs and threats.
“It is clear the intention of this abhorrent email is to create fear within the community,” Bergen said of the email, which included hateful comments such as “Canada is a white country.”
Bergen said eradicating hate from Hamilton remains top of mind for police, especially given the uptick in reported incidents that disproportionately target certain groups.
“It is on all of us — institutions, community organizations and members — to call out these acts of hate,” he said. “Reporting hate occurrences is an important step in stopping the cycle of hatred and preventing others from being victimized.”