Reports of hate crimes are surging in Alberta’s capital city

By LegalMatters Staff • A hate crime is defined by the Calgary Police Services as being an offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by hate, bias or prejudice. People can be singled out due to their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language or gender.

Calgary Criminal lawyer Matthew Deshaye of Dunn & Associates says the Criminal Code lists several offences related to hate propaganda, such as advocating genocide, public incitement of hatred, and the willful promotion of hatred.

He notes that many incidents motivated the prejudice or racism do not rise to the level of a criminal offence. Examples of those would include racial slurs, homophobic bullying and racist material.

In the past year, Deshaye says Alberta police have investigated various reports of hateful incidents. They include a severed pig’s head being placed on a crosswalk that was painted in Pride colours outside a school with a gay-straight alliance club.

In Edmonton, a mother and daughter dressed in hijabs were attacked as they sat in a car in a parking lot. Also in Alberta’s capital city, men carrying Ukrainian flags were allegedly kicked and punched by a group of Russian-speaking men after an NHL game.

Statistics Canada reports that members of the Black community are most common targets for hate crimes across the country, followed by East or Southeast Asians, Indigenous people and South Asians.

When looking at hate crimes motivated by religion, the Jewish population is targeted most often followed by Muslims.