We have hate crime laws, let’s use them
If hate crimes, and hatred, are motivated by a fear of someone or something that is different, then we are all at risk from it.
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Were you at all surprised that reports of hate crimes increased dramatically in Niagara last year?
You shouldn’t be.
Consider some of the headlines reported in the past week alone on the Niagara Dailies websites:
“Canada sees record rise in antisemitism in 2021, surge in violence toward Jews;”
“Muslim group concerned after Edmonton mosques receive packages with powdery substance;”
“B.C. police probe whether arson attack on home of Ukrainian pastor was a hate crime.”
That’s just for Canada. Just for this week.
On Monday, it was reported that Niagara Regional Police conducted as many hate crime investigations last year — 21 — as they did in all of 2019 and 2020 combined, when there were 11 and 10 investigations respectively.
Vandalism and graffiti, incidents involving swastikas and racial or homophobic slurs, threats of violence, rocks and eggs thrown. Some of those involved threats and even violence. The usual stupidity.
Only one resulted in an actual hate crime charge being laid against an individual, involving a threat apparently made online against a Black person basically for being Black.
But a crime motivated by someone’s colour, heritage or sexual orientation is no less of a hate crime even if it doesn’t meet the legal definition of a hate crime.
“I think the prosecutors need to be more aggressive in trying for hate crime charges,” said Saleh Waziruddin, chair of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association, in an interview.
“Even if they don’t think it’s 100 per cent going to be a conviction, I think they need to push the standards and try to get convictions even with a lower standard of evidence.”
Having strong anti-hate crime laws, and being willing to aggressively investigate complaints and test those laws by laying charges, is so important in protecting people made vulnerable by the prejudice of others.
If hate crimes, and hatred, are motivated by a fear of someone or something that is different, then we are all at risk from it. There’s something about each of us that prevents us from blending into the crowd, either here or at a place we might visit.
Our skin tone. Our sexual orientation. Our faith. Why should that matter to anyone else? And yet, sadly, it does.
In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, police across Canada reported 2,669 hate crimes, a 37 per cent increase over 2019 even as the overall crime rate dropped by 10 per cent during that time, according to Statistics Canada.
A criminology professor at University of Alberta called it “disturbing on many levels.”
“Given that at a time when the whole world was struggling with the pandemic,” Temitope Oriola told the Toronto Star, “it means that there was an added layer of burden for some of our fellow Canadians who were dealing with these unprovoked kinds of attacks … on the basis of their sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, religion and so forth.”
It would be comforting if we could believe all this was simply a matter of more people saying enough is enough, and finally calling these incidents out for what they are: Crimes, yes, but motivated specifically by hatred.
But that implies the problem isn’t getting worse, when clearly it is.
Waziruddin’s suggestion that hate-crime charges be laid more often when hate seems to be a motivating factor is a reasonable step.
We have the laws, let’s use them. No one should suffer or be the victim of another person’s twisted fears and warped view of the world.
