Hate crimes in Ottawa have been increasing for years. Here are some reasons why – OCanada

Nov 20, 2023

Ottawa police have published information regarding the type, location and targets of hate crimes between 2015 and 2022, painting a grim picture of how hate crimes occur in the capital city.

Hate crimes in Ottawa have indeed been more frequent since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, but open-source data from the Ottawa Police Service show that hate crimes have actually soared in the national capital since 2015.

Police have published information regarding the type, location and targets of more than 1,300 documented hate crimes between 2015 and 2022, painting a grim picture of how they occur in Ottawa.

Police define a hate crime as “a criminal violation motivated by hate, based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or any other similar factor.”

Those crimes jumped considerably in 2021, to 262, and then again to 317 in 2022, and Ottawa police expect hate crimes to continue to rise in 2023.

This past summer, they said hate crimes had risen by 23.5 per cent compared to 2022. At that time, 158 incidents had been deemed criminal and 63 had been determined to be hate-motivated, but non-criminal. Those included 62 incidents of mischief to property, 25 threats uttered to a person, 19 level-one assaults, 15 incidents of criminal stalking or harassment and 16 incidents of mischief to cultural property. Jewish, Black and 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities were most commonly targeted.

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