How common are hate crimes in Canada?
In 2001-2002, twelve major Canadian police forces reported a total of 938 hate crime incidents. Overall, over one-half or 57% of these hate crimes were motivated by race or ethnicity and 43% were motivated by religion. Sexual orientation was the motivation in about one-tenth of the incidents. Blacks and South Asians were among those most frequently targeted in hate crime incidents motivated by race or ethnicity. The majority of incidents motivated by religion involved anti-Semitism followed by those targeting Muslims. The most common types of hate crime violations included mischief or vandalism (29%), assault (25%), uttering threats (20%), and hate propaganda (13%).
