Monday, June 14, 2010

Hate Crimes Up In Canada

According to a StatsCanada report released this morning, hate crimes in 2008 were up 35% from the previous year, to 1,036 incidents.

As far as victims go, there is nothing particularly surprising that I can see: once again, Jews are the religious group, blacks the ethnicity, most often targeted.

Hate crimes pertaining to sexual orientation rose a whopping 124% to 159 incidents, though that's still a small portion of the overall total.

On 42% of occasions, the crimes committed were threats and assaults, with vandalism and such like offenses constituting another 49% of occasions.

From a geographical perspective, the report contains a few interesting numbers:
When it comes to crimes per 100,000 population, Vancouver tops the chart at 6.3%, that rate almost doubling from last year. But you don't read much about racial tensions in that city. And Calgary, where the Aryan Guard has had two years of fairly heavy press coverage, nevertheless ranks in the middle of the pack.

10 comments:

rabbit said...

The classification and reporting of hate crimes varies greatly by region. If a police force has an extensive "hate crimes unit" then they're going to report a lot of hate crimes because they are trained to do so.

It's like autism. Some people claim that the rate of autism is soaring, but much more likely is that the diagnosis of autism is soaring.

Thus it's difficult to draw definitive conclusions from hate crime statistics. There are too many confounding factors.

Regarding the Aryan Guard, they are such a small and isolated -- and I'm guessing closely monitored -- group of wingnuts that they are not likely to have much effect on the statistics.

rabbit said...

RuralSandi:

I have no idea what you are blathering on about. I can only imagine that you took my comment as some sort of defense of Stephen Harper, but it's hard to be sure because you were too busy with your personal attacks.

Dirk Buchholz said...

Please hate crimes against Jews,where what exactly do they consist of,lol
As for Indigenous Peoples not a peep other than to state the numbers might not be correct due to under reporting. Perhaps, but then again when it comes to Indigenous Peoples the racism etc is so systemic that what might be seen as a hate crime for one group but not for another,i.e Indigenous Peoples.Also let us not forget that Indigenous Peoples are also hated on by the very people responsible for policing. Indigenous Peoples ARE subject to more racism etc than any other ethnic group in Canada,this is hands down fact. But unfortunately Indigenous Peoples get absolutely no respect or empathy.
Statistics can say any thing you want them to,yawn.
The poor "suffering" Jew,the fact they are one of the most privileged segments of Cnd society, political and economically, seems to fly in the face of supposed "facts",lol.

rabbit said...

DB:

I think you could have called people's attention to hatred against indigenous peoples without the gratuitous swipe at Jews.

What would you have Jews do? Not report hate crime? When someone spray paints a swastika on a synagogue, your advice is that they paint over it and shut up?

Dirk Buchholz said...

my point is again statistics can say anything you want them to.
Look at it this way, the real problem when it comes to racism and intolerance ,in Canada,is that which is directed at Indigenous People.
But not so according to these statistics,indeed not a peep,like wtf.
I will say it again antisemitism is not a problem in Canada,compared to the systemic racism & expressions of intolerance directed at Indigenous Peoples it is laughable.
So why do certain people make such a big deal about it while saying nothing about the REAL problem.
As far as I am concerned it is nothing but politics, indeed this government seems to have a vested interest in exploiting the non-existent problem of antisemitism for it's own political ends.
As for my advice, how about keeping things in context,very simple.

The Invisible Hand said...

WesternGrit: When you have right wing governments in a country you tend to see more of this type of stuff.

Prove it.

WesternGrit said...

Xenophobia is part of extreme right wing/conservative culture. To wit: Germany 1939, Japan/Italy - same time. The colonial powers were all very conservative in their treatment of their "subjects"... The list goes on (your "proof")...

The Invisible Hand said...

LOL! So in other words, your evidence that "right wing governments produce more hate crimes" is to simply redefine "right wing" to mean "what causes hate crimes." Nice tautology.

And furthermore, even if that were true, it still tells us nothing about whether you get more hate crimes under "conservative governments" versus "liberal governments" in contemporary Western democracies, which is what we're talking about here.

WesternGrit said...

Invisible: Look at Arizona - perhaps the most Conservative state in the union... They're coming up with some pretty racist legistlation... America under the Republican cloud was awash with hate crimes against anyone who even looked brown/Arab/Middle Eastern. Sikhs were getting murdered for looking Afghani. And, it was Republican/conservative talking heads who were inciting it. Like the anti-Obama backlash... veiled racism led by conservatives. I can go on and on, and on, and on...

The Invisible Hand said...

Look at Arizona - perhaps the most Conservative state in the union...

According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, Arizona is currently the 22nd most Republican state. And that's probably inflated a bit, since the last GOP presidential candidate was from there.

They're coming up with some pretty racist legistlation...

While I have serious doubts about whether the recent bill will accomplish very much, it takes a high level of intellectual bankruptcy to claim that it's racist, especially since it essentially just takes something that's already a federal crime and makes it a state crime.

America under the Republican cloud was awash with hate crimes against anyone who even looked brown/Arab/Middle Eastern. Sikhs were getting murdered for looking Afghani.

And now, WesternGrit will produce the statistics to show that these kind of crime rates started going up after Bush took office (as opposed to after 9/11) and are going back down now that Obama is in charge.

(We're waiting...)

And, it was Republican/conservative talking heads who were inciting it.

1) Prove there's a causal relationship between conservative pundits and hate crimes.
2) Said conservative pundits are around regardless of which party is power, so even if true, this is irrelevant your original claim.

Like the anti-Obama backlash... veiled racism led by conservatives.

Yeah, just like how all those anti-Bush protesters were racist against white people!

Are you seriously saying that if President Hillary Clinton or President John Edwards had brought in that legislation, conservatives would have been perfectly fine with it? More intellectual bankruptcy...

I can go on and on, and on, and on...

Yes you do, and maybe eventually you'll actually find a valid argument. I'm not holding my breath, though.