Hate motivated crimes are on the rise and northeastern cities are part of the troubling trend

The growing rate of hate-motivated crimes reported by police is a problem Canada-wide, as recently reported by Statistics Canada. 

Last week, the CBC reported that according to Greater Sudbury Police in both 2019 and 2020, four hate motivated crimes were brought forward by the public. However, that number climbed to 10 last year. What's more is that four of the 10 incidents reported targeted the city's Jewish community. 

Now, the CBC has learned that the troubling upward trend has not spared other northeastern cities in Ontario.

In North Bay, police recorded one hate motivated incident in 2019 and zero in 2020. But that number climbed to five in 2021. Meanwhile the number of incidents in Timmins swelled from two in 2019 and one in 2020 to seven last year. 

"Percentage-wise, yes, it is a large increase. But these are still very low numbers," said David Woolley, a corporate communications officer with North Bay police. 

"Keep in mind that none of these are violent assaults. They're all concerning because all crime is concerning but this shouldn't be seen as a ... rash of violent attacks."

The accessibility of hate speech and hateful ideas and thoughts is literally three clicks away.— Mohammed Hashim, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation

As for Sault Ste. Marie, police reported 10 hate-motivated incidents last year. That's up from four in both 2019 and 2020. The CBC reached out to Mayor Christian Provenzano for an interview but he declined.

Mohammed Hashim is the executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF), a federal crown corporation dedicated to anti-racism. He said the rising numbers largely stem from two main issues.  

"One is political polarization has given a sense of freedom to those who want espouse hateful views but also the acceleration and the accessibility of hate speech has never been higher before," he said. 

"You see that online, that the accessibility of hate speech and hateful ideas and thoughts is literally three clicks away."

New nation-wide task force

The Race Relations Foundation of Canada announced last week that it will co-chair a new task force with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to create Canada's first official set of standards to investigate hate crimes. 

"The way information is received about hate crimes by police, the way that information is collected, tagged as hateful, adjudicated ... then prosecuted, then sentenced if found guilty — all of those systems have deficiencies right across the board," Hashim said. 

"There is one consistency about hate crimes ... it is consistently not being investigated properly," he said. 

The current deficiencies, Hashim said, make convicting hate crimes difficult. Particularly when it comes to hate speech. 

"Having somebody's speech deemed hateful is a reduction of their freedom of speech and their freedom of speech is protected," he said, "In order for that reduction to be recognized as harmful, it requires a higher threshold of power." 

"The threshold of what we determine to be hateful is very, very high. And therefore, all those barriers create obstacles to cases being charged and convictions to be given." 

Local charges laid

Of the 10 incidents reported by Timmins police over the last three years, five of those investigations ended in charges being laid. In North Bay, out of the five incidents reported in 2021, four ended in charges.

"Most of those charges were mischief or graffiti and there was one incident of harassment," North Bay police spokersperson David Woolley said.  

 Sault Ste. Marie police did not provide information on case clearances or charges.