Instances of Hate Crimes Reported to Police Continued to Rise in 2021, but Crimes Against Indigenous People Dropped Slightly

Instances of hate crimes reported to police rose by 27 percent in 2021, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

In total, 3,360 incidents were reported over the year, following a 36 percent increase in 2020, and a 72 percent spike in 2019.

Crimes targeting a race or ethnicity rose for the third straight year, accounting for roughly 51 percent of all reported hate crimes.

After a massive 169 percent increase in 2020, incidents targeting Indigenous peoples dropped by one, to 77 in 2021.

Incidents targeting the Black population made up the vast majority of racially motivated crimes, totalling 642 incidents.

Reports of crimes targeting sexual orientation hit a record high 423, while those targeting a sex or gender rose to 62 in 2021.

Religion-related hate crimes jumped by 67 percent, with those targeting the Catholic population seeing the largest increase at 260 percent.

In total, BC reported the second highest rate of hate crimes of any jurisdiction in Canada, with 11.5 per 100,000 residents.

You can view all the data at this link.