Race and ethnicity are the most common motivating factors for hate crimes in Canada, according to a new study from Statistics Canada.
"Hate crime in Canada," published Monday by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, states that hate crimes made up only a small proportion of total offences in 2006, accounting for less than 1 per cent of all criminal incidents reported by police.
That year, of the 892 hate-motivated crimes reported by police, six in 10 were motivated by race/ethnicity.
Another 25 per cent were motivated by religion and 10 per cent by sexual orientation, StatsCan reports.
The highest proportion of hate crimes -- a full half -- were property-related offences, most commonly mischief.
One-third were violent crimes such as assault.
Here is the racial breakdown for the 502 racially or ethnically-motivated incidents in 2006:
- Blacks: 50 per cent
- South Asians: 13 per cent
- Arabs or West Asians: 12 per cent
Here is the breakdown of crimes reported to be motivated by religion:
- Offences against Jews: 63 per cent
- Offences against Muslims: 21 per cent
- Offences against Catholics: 6 per cent
Among the 80 crimes motivated by sexual orientation, the majority were committed against homosexuals.
The study also looked at data from the General Social Survey, which asked Canadians about how they have been affected by victimization.
That data, which is from 2004, includes incidents not reported to police. It shows that 3 per cent of all self-reported incidents were believed to be motivated by hate and that race/ethnicity was the most common motivation for the crimes.
The Statistics Canada report also points out that the effects of hate crimes often have more lasting effects than non-hate motivated crimes.
"Research has shown that hate-motivated crimes can have effects on victims beyond those associated with non-hate crimes," the study says.
"Hate crimes often target a person's core sense of identity and can result in more severe psychological consequences and longer recovery periods."
Citing the GSS findings, StatsCan reported that four out of 10 hate crime victims found it difficult or impossible to carry on with normal life. By comparison, 23 per cent of non-hate crime victims found it difficult or impossible to carry out their daily lives.
And victims of violent hate crimes, the GSS findings state, were more likely to feel fearful after the incident.
