Hate in Alberta: Problems to Solutions

Michele St-Amant, John McCoy, Maryam Adham

Message from the City of Edmonton Historian Co-Laureates

A group of policy makers, social workers, researchers, and law enforcement are standing at a bank of the North Saskatchewan River – they look down and in the distance they see a baby struggling in the water. Immediately, one of them jumps into the water to rescue the child. Shockingly, another baby is spotted and then another and then another. Soon, everyone is in the river trying to save the tide of precious infants.

There is a frantic call for more resources, a task on. An old woman breaks from the group and starts to walk up the riverbank, exasperated and exhausted the rest of the group implore her to stay and help with the rescue efforts. The wise woman responds, “I need to go up river and stop the babies from being thrown in.”

This familiar parable attributed to Saul Alinsky, (likely adapted from a story by Irving Zola) is a good reminder for our moment. What should we be doing in the face of an overwhelming amount of hate crimes?

1. Move from Hate to Hurt

Hate is a 900lb enraged gorilla, hurt is a small crying child that has fallen down. Confronting the latter will leave us bruised at best, supporting the former may be difficult but ultimately leaves us all better. We must focus our efforts on what is causing hate: hurt, caused by inadequate housing, a lack of opportunities, information hygiene, and a safety net that is increasingly threadbare.
The hate crimes that have made it to the court system do not reveal deranged perpetrators angered about immigration or Canada’s changing faith landscape; they tell a story of the ghosts of residential schools, a lack of investment in mental health and a need for basic supports.

The repercussions of these crimes are also complex. Their impact ripples throughout communities and creates vicarious trauma felt by people whose only proximity may be via a newsfeed, but which is nonetheless debilitating as citizens don’t often know how to respond or how to help. We need to strengthen systems of social support and connection that address the hurt caused by hate & the hurt that leads to hate.

2. What got us here won’t get us out…

Calls for harsher penalties, and more law enforcement cannot be our primary response and should not be where we put a majority
of our resources. This method is slow and ineffective as time & repetition dull our reaction to incidents. The Criminal Justice system has been and continues to be fuel to the fire, not a solution.

3. Embrace Tradition

The path forward must be based on the twin principles of wahkohtowin (Cree: kinship) & mawadaa (Arabic: communal affection). Hate is a shared problem, care is a collective solution. Our communities need to heal side by side, learn from one another, break/fry bread* together, and celebrate. Our collective future is potlucks, not padlocks.
* Gluten free options available.

–Cheryl Whiskeyjack

–Omar Yaqub

Historian Co-Laureates for the City of Edmonton

Executive Summary

Since 2019, hate has increased in Alberta. Between 2019 and 2020 alone, the province experienced its highest year-over-year increase in reported hate crimes. Local trends and events, such as a rash of incidents targeting Black Muslim women and members of East Asian communities in 2020, as well as the hate-motivated murder of a Muslim Pakistani family in June 2021 in London, Ontario, have contributed to a growing fear that marginalized communities are under threat.

International conflicts, crises, and events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, have created social tension that can drive hate incidents and crime locally.

As shown by this study, there is a growing sense among Albertans, including from minority and non- minority communities, that they are experiencing hate. Therefore, there is an acute need to better understand these trends and, critically, the drivers of hate crimes within the province. From this evidence-based understanding, government
and members of civil society can identify more effective and targeted deterrents and solutions to hate crimes.

Approach & Findings of this Report

This report outlines the historical trajectory and current state of hate in Alberta. By combining historical trends of police-reported hate crimes in Canada with contemporary trends derived from surveys of 1,310 Albertans and interviews with 78 community members, this report aims to illustrate the current state of hate in the province. Based on this evidence, this report found the following trends of hate in Alberta.

As noted in both national and provincial trends reported by Statistics Canada and by the statements from our interviewees, hate is steadily increasing in the province. This trend has been particularly pronounced since 2018.
In the general population survey 35% of respondents reported experiencing some form of hate. Among racial and ethnic minorities this rate was 49%.
Our interviewees expressed frustration at several aspects of the current hate crime reporting process and a lack of trust with the police within some communities.
In the general population survey 82 percent of Indigenous respondents identified a lack of trust as a barrier to reporting hate incidents to police.
Although violence accompanied a minority of all reported hate in our surveys, most of this violence was experienced by visible minority groups. This finding is particularly applicable to Middle Eastern, Black, and Indigenous respondents.
Visible minorities in Alberta continue to experience a disproportionate amount of hate compared to non-minorities. This is especially true when visible minorities are members of minority religious communities.
Overall, visible minorities are more likely than non-minorities to report community-level experiences with hate. Firsthand experiences with hate make one more likely to report community experience with hate.

Recommendations for Government

These trends and challenges require solutions that are designed to both target and prevent hate from occurring, while creating an accessible and equitable environment for victims to report hate and seek support. The recommendations offered here are focused on the needs of victims and improving their ability to report incidents to a more accessible and responsive system. Recommendations also focus on preventive strategies. Based on our findings, our report makes the following six recommendations to the Government of Alberta:

Albertans who participated in this study view education in schools and the workplace as an effective strategy to prevent hate. Educational modules should be developed to address contemporary issues of hate, as well as to help support teachers and trainers discuss this difficult and sensitive topic.
More support should be given to marginalized communities in overcoming the various barriers to reporting hate. This can be done in several ways such as targeted awareness sessions for marginalized communities and segments of communities (e.g., urban Indigenous and black populations), increasing the diversity of frontline responders, offering more accessible translation services around police reporting, providing alternative avenues for reporting (e.g., online or through supportive community agencies) and increasing public awareness about how and when to report hate.
The process of reporting hate incidents and the outcomes from these reports should be clearly communicated to victims by police. This will help clarify the process and expectations about the outcomes following reporting. These communications and interactions should be trauma informed.
The province should consider enacting province-wide offences that prohibit some hateful conduct that falls below the current criminal threshold. This will create consistent standards and opportunities for data collection in urban and rural areas of Alberta.
Additional training on the impacts of hate-motivated crimes on victims and communities should be provided for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service. This may include, but is not limited to, creating opportunities for Crown prosecutors to hear from victims, impacted communities and investigators, and monitoring the impact of recent guideline changes. Additionally, small yet practical steps – like providing translation services for victim impact statements – can help make the process more equitable for impacted communities.
Investigative practices for hate crimes across the province should be, as much as possible, standardized to ensure hate crimes are approached equally and equitably. To pursue this reform, a working group of police agencies should be convened to share best practices and challenges in investigating and responding to hate crimes.

The OPV is grateful to the many Albertans who participated in this study and shared their perspectives and experiences. We acknowledge that hate and hate crimes are not easy subjects to discuss. These experiences create significant costs for victims, their families, and communities. It is our hope that government and policy makers will act based on community feedback to tackle hate in Alberta.

1. Introduction

Hate continues to be a concern in Alberta. Community-based organizations, the criminal justice system, and all levels of government are attuned to the worrying trend of increases in police-reported hate incidents, a trend that dates back to at least the early 2010s. The most recent statistics from 2019 to 2020 reveal that Alberta experienced a 40 percent increase in police-reported hate incidents, its sharpest ever.¹ The media has highlighted troubling hate incidents of Black Muslim women being physically assaulted in Edmonton,² and stabbings of people experiencing homelessness in Calgary.³

Given the sustained attention to hate both locally and nationally, many would assume that we have a fulsome understanding of the problem. From which different levels of government and civil society can draw recommendations for addressing the issue. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Our study, described in this report, reveals that our knowledge and understanding of hate crimes and our efforts aimed at preventing and countering hate are falling short. Statistics indicate hate is on the rise, and, according to our study, hate is spreading and impacting all communities in Alberta. There are several gaps in our response related to public awareness, the need for a more responsive, effective and accessible criminal justice system for victims and targeted prevention efforts.

While members of visible minority groups continue to experience the largest share of hate in this province, non-minority Albertans are also reporting significant levels of hate. Increasing levels of social polarization in our society, global conflicts far afield, and experiences online may all be contributing to this trend.

Moreover, through our surveys and interviews, we discovered that some Albertans who have experienced hate do not believe their communities are comfortable reporting incidents to police, as they do not believe reporting will lead to repercussions or change, or because of long standing systemic barriers between some communities and policing agencies. Despite these worrying circumstances, Albertans offered many potential solutions to help address hate in this province.

To help prevent hate from occurring in the first place and aid targeted communities, the causes, impacts and legal definition of hate should be discussed with students in our public education system, in workplaces, and targeted awareness sessions should be offered to communities that are most impacted by hate incidents. Victims and communities who display low levels of trust with police should be encouraged to report hate, including through alternative mechanisms, for example, via community-based organizations, or online.

To help with this, governments and police need to clarify what outcomes and assistance can be expected during the “lifecycle” of a hate crime, including what happens directly after reporting, during and after the investigative process, and for victims who live with the lasting negative impacts of hate.

Albertans also view deterrence as an important part of the solution, which leads us to recommend new by-laws for hate-related behaviours. Among the police who were interviewed for our study, additional training was suggested, as well as new procedural standards for investigating hate crimes. Finally, when faced with the most egregious examples of hate crimes, victim impact and the needs of victims should be more meaningfully considered by the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, judiciary, and victim’s services. While none of these recommendations alone will eradicate hate in this province, they may help stifle the current increase in hate experienced by Albertans, provide greater assistance and redress to victims, and lead to a decrease in such incidents.

The Hate Ecosystem

Hate is a complex phenomenon, of which hate crime is only one manifestation. Laws that seek to protect Canadians from hate, discussed at length throughout this report, are purposely specific and limited. These laws, their interpretation, and use are shaped by Canadian jurisprudence and interactions between victims, the police, Crown, and judiciary. Victims of hate must navigate these complex systems. This experience, in no small part because of the limitations of Canadian legislation and several systemic barriers, can be frustrating for those who experience hate incidents firsthand and discouraging for communities who disproportionately experience hate.

Many experiences with hate do not qualify as a crime under the Canadian Criminal Code. An individual being profiled and followed in a place of business or subjected to offensive racial slurs, for example, justifiably qualiflies as hate for the individual —and for many Albertans— but not for the criminal justice system. For some, these incidents are a disturbingly common occurrence.

Hate incidents or hate-motivated crimes are manifestations of broader problems, like racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and prejudice towards members of the LGBTQ2+ community. In turn, these broader issues are shaped by historical and contemporary politics and events. The historical trajectory of hate and racism in Alberta is difficult to separate from both local and international events, conflicts, and politics. Residential schools and the Sixties Scoop, the Chinese Exclusion Act of the early 20th century, the Holocaust, wars and ethnic conflicts, and genocides around the world, all shape our contemporary understanding of hate at home.

Adding to the complexity of hate in Alberta is the increasingly dynamic composition of its society. Canada and Alberta are diverse in terms of the “identifiable groups” against which hate- motivated crimes are committed. Individuals may be targeted based on identities like ethnicity, race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation. Today, roughly 40 percent of Alberta’s population can be identified as a “visible minority.”

As police and the courts examine hate incidents and attempt to determine whether they meet the criminal threshold, they must balance the victims’ and the alleged perpetrators’ rights, as well as navigate the narrowness of the Canadian Criminal Code’s definition of hate-motivated crime. Often, because our Canadian Charter Rights protect our freedom of belief, opinion, and expression, many reported incidents fall into what has been referred to as “awful but lawful” conduct. These non-criminal incidents can nonetheless be highly traumatizing for victims, who are targeted based not on their actions or behaviour, but rather, their intrinsic identity. The result of this limitation can be anger towards what is perceived as an unresponsive system that is not adequately accounting for the debilitating impacts of hate.

Our Approach to Understanding Hate in Alberta

To better understand the current ecosystem of hate in Alberta and how best to address it, The Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV) conducted a comprehensive study that gathered data from three sources – two surveys with different populations, and targeted interviews with community leaders, practitioners, hate crime investigators, and victims of hate.

The first survey gathered online responses from a representative sample of the Albertan population. The second survey gathered online responses from a non-representative sample of the “interested public” in Alberta. This sample was composed of individuals who wanted to share their opinions including some of which who experienced hate firsthand, knew someone else who did, or worked with victims of hate, such as in social service organizations or advocacy groups.

In addition to the two surveys, the OPV also conducted 78 semi-structured interviews with community leaders, practitioners, hate crime investigators, and victims of hate in Alberta. Interviewees were selected based on their experience with relevant agencies and community-based organizations. Interviewees were formally working with community- based, non-government, and government organizations and agencies, involved with anti-racism or anti-hate initiatives, or occupied positions of leadership within their respective communities. Through these diverse experiences interviewees developed broader understandings of the impact of hate, and related issues, within their agencies and communities.

While the methodology and results of the surveys are discussed at length in Sections 5 and 6, statements from our interviewees are incorporated throughout this report to provide contextual insights. Before we explore the hate experienced by Albertans, however, we first explore how hate itself is defined.

It should also be noted that although we provided survey respondents with a specific definition of hate,** these individuals may have subjective understandings of what constitutes a hate crime or incident. This limitation may result in the reporting of experiences with hate that would not meet the standards of what constitutes a police reported hate crime. While the definition provided in the survey was broad in comparison to legal definitions, it helps to capture a set of experiences that are meaningful to respondents. These experiences should be considered by civil society and governments when contemplating a comprehensive public health approach to the issue, especially when this response includes preventative measures.

**The following definition of hate was provided to survey respondents: “hostile language or action aimed at individuals or groups based on their ethnicity, religion, culture, sex, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity, or disability. This can include physical assault, threats, vandalism, the use of slurs, or online social media harassment.”

2. Defining Hate

There is currently no consensus about the definition of hate. Most commonly, hate is associated with racism and different forms of discrimination.

Academic usage and definitions are ambiguous, subjective, and often linked to area-specific studies. An unclear definition of hate renders related terms such as hate incidents, hate crimes, and hate speech difficult to identify, measure, and study. The ability of governments to address hate, through public policies and legislation, is in turn limited by the lack of clarity on what constitutes hate.⁴

In its most basic interpretation, hate is an emotion. Yet the current popular use of the term refers to a range of harmful behaviours directed towards individuals or groups who share an identity. Using this interpretation, hate is sometimes considered to be located on a spectrum, qualitatively more severe than bias and prejudice, but less severe than violent extremism. In other instances, hate is considered the underlying motive that fuels the whole spectrum of harm, from bias and discrimination to targeted violence, mass shootings, and terrorism.

The lack of consensus about what constitutes hate is also due in large part due to the constant evolution of societal norms. What is considered hateful conduct changes over time and is defined by culture. That is why many behaviours that are deemed hateful here and now were considered socially acceptable previously.⁵ Similarly, some behaviours directed toward specific groups currently considered normal may be labeled as hateful in the future.

Hate and the Criminal Code

The Criminal Code specifies which hate-related acts are considered criminal in Canada. Hate- related criminal offences are grouped into two sets. The first set is composed of hate-speech offences, found in sections 318(1) and 319, and include (1) the promotion of genocide, (2) public incitement of hatred, (3) wilful promotion of hatred, and (4) wilful promotion of antisemitism. As history has shown, charging and successfully prosecuting hate-speech offences in Canada is both difficult and uncommon. The threshold of speech that these charges require captures very little of the common, everyday hate that many Canadians face.

The second set of hate-related offences is outlined in section 430(4.1) and involves mischief to religious property or educational institutions. These offences elevate the possible punishment when hatred or bias motivates an act of mischief, such as graffiti or vandalism. However, as the offence only relates to specific institutions and not – for example – hate-motivated graffiti targeting someone’s home, it again has limitations.

Besides these specific hate-related offences, the most common way hate is prosecuted in the Canadian legal system is at the sentencing stage. Section 718.2(a)(i) of the Criminal Code allows judges to consider whether any criminal offence, such as an assault, was motivated by bias, prejudice or hatred against the victim. If hate was indeed determined to be a motivation, this provision allows the judge to impose a harsher punishment.

However, many instances of hate do not constitute criminal offences, and are referred to as hate incidents when they are below the threshold of criminality. For instance, using a racial slur – whether in-person or online– would generally not reach the threshold of a criminal offence. However, these incidents still have a very real effect on the individuals targeted and the broader community. In response to this potential gap in legislation, both Edmonton and Calgary introduced legislation that attaches penalties for this behavior if it occurs in public spaces. In Edmonton, the Public Spaces Bylaw (Bylaw 14614) was amended to expand the definition of bullying to include harassment based on a person’s identity. Similarly, Calgary amended its Public Behavior Bylaw (Bylaw 54M2006) to prohibit harassment. Both bylaws attach escalating fines to hate-related behaviours.

3. Psycho-social Origins of Hate Crimes

Countering hate and addressing its negative impacts on our society is a goal shared by different levels of government and community organizations. A starting point for this work is developing a better understanding of what drives and motivates hateful behaviours and associated harm.

According to hate crime scholars, hate crimes are a unique form of interpersonal aggression and criminality which, it is believed, serve two purposes for the perpetrator. First, hate crimes serve as a symbolic message of hate to the targeted individual(s), group(s), or community(ies),⁶ the purpose of which is to subordinate and intimidate the victim.⁷ Second, it is intended to alter or restrict the behavior or movement of the victim(s).⁸

Hate crimes perpetrators are not a homogenous group. In fact, scholars have found that hate crime offenders can come from a diverse set of backgrounds and often have diverse motivations for committing hate crimes. However, the scholarly work on hate crime offenders has found several key characteristics which appear cross-cutting.

First, hate crime offenders tend to be young, White, and male.⁹

Second, hate crimes tend to be carried out by multiple perpetrators rather than individuals, and are more likely to be violent and lead to injury than other types of crimes.¹⁰

Third, and contrary to common belief, only a minority of hate crimes are perpetrated by individuals who are involved in organized hate groups.¹¹

Fourth, recent findings suggest hate crime offenders may have longer criminal histories and higher substance abuse rates.¹²

Finally, a growing number of studies are challenging the notion that hate crime offences are committed by strangers. Instead, it has been argued that hate crime offenders likely know their victims such as being a neighbor or living in the same residential area.

Before proceeding to discuss the characteristics and motivations of hate crime perpetrators in-depth, it is important to note that, our understanding of hate crime perpetrators is largely based on their interaction with the criminal justice system. Given that some victims do not report hate to the police, our understanding of hate crime perpetrators is likely driven by a small portion of these perpetrators who, because of victim-reporting, are brought into contact with the criminal justice system.

These may be perpetrators who commit more violent crimes, which are thus more likely to be reported, or perpetrators who commit hate crimes against communities that have historically better relationships with the police relative to others.

Psychosocial Characteristics and Motivations of Hate Crime Perpetrators

Academic work which assesses psychosocial characteristics of hate crime perpetrators is growing. Much of the work today draws from pioneering social psychological research on the personality characteristics which lead to prejudice and social intolerance.¹³

Studies of hate crime perpetrators can be traced back to earlier clinical observations which sought to understand how people form outgroup bias and prejudice. Bell (1978) found prejudiced individuals may have higher rates of narcissistic personality disorder and lack of empathy for the targeted outgroup.¹⁴ Later on, studies assessed whether an individual’s level of prejudice was related to diagnosable psychopathologies.

For example, Dunbar (1997) found that individuals who scored higher on prejudice scales were more likely to have Cluster A personality disorders, impulse management problems, be emotionally estranged, and have a guarded interpersonal style.¹⁵

In one of the first systematic reviews of evidence on the topic, Craig (2002) attempts to identify common factors across hate crimes.¹⁶ Although no single theory or characteristic can account for all types of hate crimes or their perpetrators, Craig found several cross-cutting characteristics. First was that few hate crime offenders are members of organized hate groups.¹⁷ Instead, the bulk of hate crimes are perpetrated by individuals and groups of individuals with no known affiliations or links to organized hate groups.¹⁸ In particular, when hate crimes are committed by individuals acting in groups, they are more likely to utilize excessive violence which leads to injuries.¹⁹

Even though most hate crimes are committed by offenders who are not members of organized hate groups, Craig notes that when members of hate groups do commit hate crimes, the dynamics of the crime may differ from those perpetrated by unaffiliated individuals. Specifically, the hate crimes perpetrated by members of hate groups often exhibit a higher level of predation (i.e., violence). Dunbar et al. (2005) found evidence of this in their study of the characteristics of 581 hate crime offenders in the United States.²⁰ Specifically, they found that hate crime offenders who were members of hate groups or racialized criminal gangs committed significantly more severe hate crimes than those who were not. This is supported by other work, which argues that the culture of hatred and antagonism in hate groups may lead to an increased likelihood of violence.²¹ For example, Turpin-Petrosino argues that hate groups often encourage their members to act violently.²²

Several studies have also found that hate crime offenders may have specific psychopathological and personality types. This includes higher impulsivity control issues;²³ authoritarian personalities;²⁴ thrill-seeking behaviors;²⁵ higher- than-usual history of substance abuse, and a prior criminal record, including criminal violence.²⁶ However, the latter finding has been the subject of considerable debate. For example, some studies have found that perpetrators were less likely to have prior involvement with the criminal justice system,²⁷ while others found that hate crime perpetrators were often involved in other criminal activities.²⁸

A 2020 study by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) found that hate crime perpetrators most frequently targeted someone based on their race or ethnicity.²⁹ While this finding is echoed by previous research³⁰and with data on police-reported hate crimes in Canada from Statistics Canada,³¹ START found that the composition of victims has shifted.

Specifically, during the 1990s in the United States, most hate crimes targeted African Americans, whereas during the past two decades, hate crimes against individuals perceived as Arab and Muslim or Hispanic increased substantially.³²

Additionally, the researchers found that although hate crime offenders were diverse in terms of their demographic and background characteristics, offenders presented higher rates of mental illness, substance abuse, and criminal histories compared to the general population.

Hate crime offenders were also more likely to have achieved a lower level of education and perform poorly at work.³³

In a follow-up study, Jensen et al. (2021) found that some hate crime offenders displayed unique characteristics. Specifically, they found that hate crime offenders that target someone based on their religion displayed significantly higher rates of mental illness and were also more likely to commit or plan mass casualty attacks.³⁴

On the other hand, hate crime offenders targeting someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity were more likely to be young, unmarried and unemployed. Moreover, offenders targeting someone’s race or ethnicity had higher rates of criminal histories and were most likely of all offenders to be members of hate groups.³⁵

Finally, and in contradiction to earlier work on hate offender typologies, Jensen et al. (2021) found that hate crime offenders often had competing or mixed motivations for committing their crime, including financial or material gains, as well as rhetoric or demographic changes at the national (rather than local) level.

Lastly, there is a growing body of research that challenges the widespread notion that hate crimes are perpetrated by strangers. Researchers have increasingly found that some perpetrators of hate crimes are likely to know their victims to some degree.³⁶ However, the degree to which the perpetrator ‘knows’ their victim is often tenuous and may be as simple as living within the same residential area.

For example, one study in the United Kingdom found that many victims either knew or believed that the perpetrator was a neighbor or a local person in their residential area.³⁷ However, this may not be true in all contexts. For example, data on police-reported hate crimes in Canada (discussed at length in the next section) indicates that 64% of hate crimes in Canada are perpetrated by strangers, particularly among Asian and Muslim populations.³⁸

Despite this, for the remaining 36% of hate crimes perpetrated by individuals known to the victim, prevention and intervention efforts may benefit from community and locally-driven initiatives, discussed in the later sections of this report.

4. Historical Hate Crime Trends in Canada

Like in many other countries, hate crimes and incidents in Canada have been steadily increasing over the last decade. This section will discuss this trend and focus on hate crimes which, as opposed to hate incidents, are systematically tracked by police, albeit imperfectly, in Canada. Statistics Canada publishes annual data on police- reported hate crimes across Canada. These statistics rely on data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey, which collects data on police-reported crimes and includes information on hate crimes. The UCR defines police-reported hate crimes as the following: “Police-reported hate crime is defined as a criminal violation against a person or property motivated by hate, based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental, or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or any other similar factor.”³⁹ There are several limitations to this data, but one is of particular importance to note here — only hate crimes reported to the police and subsequently determined or suspected to be motivated by hate during investigation are included. This means that hate reported to other outlets, such as community organizations or leaders, or the media, is not captured here. While there are police policies and strategies to ensure that all potentially hate- motivated events are flagged as such during the initial report writing process and subsequent follow-up investigation, there will certainly be incidents that are mischaracterized or missed all together. The most recent in-depth analysis on police- reported hate crimes in Canada, known as a Juristat, is from 2020.⁴⁰ However, Statistics Canada includes some preliminary data on police-reported hate crimes across Canada as part of their 2021 police-reported crime statistics,⁴¹ and some more preliminary statistics provided in their The Daily statistics released on March 22, 2023.⁴²At the time this report is published, the detailed Juristat on police-reported hate crimes in Canada for the year 2021 has not yet been released. Therefore, this section will discuss trends in hate crimes across Canada between 2010 and 2020, while providing a brief discussion of the preliminary data from the 2021 where applicable.

General Trends in Canada since 2010

In 2010, after two consecutive years of increases in police-reported hate crimes, the number of hate crimes in Canada decreased for the first time by 18%.⁴³ As shown in the graph below, hate crimes in Canada remained steady for the first few years of the 2010s before reaching a low of 1,167 in 2013. This number recovered slightly in 2014 and gradually increased until spiking significantly to over 2,000 in 2017. The number of hate crimes did not reach above 2,000 again until 2020. The most recent data from 2021 shows another 27% increase in hate crimes to above 3,000. Between 2019 and 2021 alone, hate crimes in Canada have increased by 72%. ⁴⁴

Hate Crime Motivations in Canada since 2010

Hate Crimes Targeting Race or Ethnicity

Hate crimes that target race or ethnicity are consistently the most frequently police-reported hate crime in Canada. For example, in 2010, over 50% of police-reported hate crimes were motivated on the basis of the victim’s race or ethnicity.⁴⁷ This proportion has remained relatively stable throughout the decade, though there was an 80% increase in police-reported hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity between 2019 and 2020.

Hate crimes targeting race and ethnicity increased from 2020 to 2021 as well, but at a much smaller rate (+6%).⁴⁸ Among racial and ethnic groups, the Black population is consistently the most frequently targeted in Canada. However, between 2019 and 2020 multiple racial and ethnic groups saw large increases. For example, the number of hate crimes targeting East or Southeast Asian population increased by 301%, and those targeting the Indigenous population increased by 152%.⁴⁹ According to the data from 2021, hate crimes targeting the Black population decreased by 5% from 2020 (following a 96% increase from 2019 to 2020), while those targeting Arab and West Asians (+46%), East and Southeast Asians (+16%), and South Asians (+21%) increased.

It should be noted that under-reporting is evident from the number of police-reported hate crimes targeting marginalized communities. For example, the number of hate crimes targeting Indigenous populations has been consistently lower than other groups despite having more injurious outcomes for victims.⁵⁰ Black and Indigenous populations in Canada have consistently reported lower levels of confidence in law enforcement and the justice system, likely contributing to systematic underreporting.⁵¹ Echoing this, a number of interviewees from these communities indicated a lack of trust in police or a belief that reporting hate incidents would not result in meaningful investigations or charges.

“People in the past have told them [police] about it [hate incidents] but they don’t do anything about it, they don’t take it seriously.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

“…being from our minority, no one is going to believe you. They don’t come forward because they don’t think people will care, they don’t think people will hear or believe them… If there were issues, they don’t know where to go, like for hate crimes or to go to the police it’s…look, even I wouldn’t go to the police either. When people do go they get asked ‘what did you do, why did that happen to you’” –Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

“We have [Indigenous] people coming in and they’re beat up. I’m talking like… beat up… The odds of them reporting are very slim.

They don’t want to draw more attention to themselves the reason they’re rough-sleeping is they kind of just want to be left alone…

It’s really hard to encourage a minority community to engage in certain supports if the supports and the systems in place are just nothing but systemic barriers.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

Despite this reported lack of trust, data from 2021 indicates that the number of hate crimes targeting the Indigenous population has grown significantly in Canada compared to the three years before the Covid-19 pandemic.⁵²

Hate Crimes Targeting Religion

Religion is the second-most frequent motivation among police-reported hate crimes in Canada. After several years of decline between 2018 and 2020, hate crimes targeting religion peaked in 2021 with an increase of 67%.⁵³ Throughout the last decade, the Jewish population is consistently the most frequently targeted by hate crimes, followed by Muslims. However, between 2014 and 2015, there was a 61% increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims, which brought this group to near parity with the Jewish population.⁵⁴

The year 2015 also saw a 57% increase in those targeting Catholics.⁵⁵ By 2016, the number of police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims and Catholics had decreased, while the number targeting the Jewish population rose 24% from the previous year. This decrease was followed by a substantial 151% increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims, and a 63% increase in hate crimes targeting the Jewish population in 2017.⁵⁶

According to the most recent data from 2021, the Jewish population remains the most frequently targeted and has increased by 47% from the previous year.⁵⁷ Meanwhile, police-reported hate crimes against Muslims have increased by 71% from 2020 to 2021 following a decrease of 55%.⁵⁸ The most substantial increase comes among Catholic religions which reported an increase of 260% in 2021 compared to 2020.

Among our interviewees for this report, many noted that national trends and events influenced their religious community’s feelings of safety. For example, one community leader we interviewed noted that events like the Quebec City Mosque shooting in 2017 significantly impacted Muslim communities across Canada, including his own in Alberta:

“Our community lives in fear. Although they [might not be] presently affected by this, they fear one day it will come to them. Whatever happens in this world is always on social media, it is spread all over. If an incident happens, like what happened in Quebec in 2017, we were scared. We were not even going to the mosque for prayers because we did not know what would happen. Everything is interconnected.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

This sentiment was also echoed by community leaders of different faiths, including the Jewish community:

“Throughout the Jewish community we feel very shaken… like we aren’t standing on stable ground. There have been a lot of experiences here in Alberta, in the United Kingdom, and in the United States. There’s a growing sense within the Jewish community that anti-Semitism is on the rise. But also, it seems to be the “Kosher” form of racism, so-to-speak. Because it seems that there is greater tolerance for anti-Semitism than, perhaps, [other forms] of racism. Someone will be publicly shamed, exposed, and held to be reprehensible for other forms of racism. But when it comes to anti-Semitism, there’s a certain veneer of acceptability.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Jewish Community

Hate Crimes Targeting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Hate crimes that target sexual orientation are the third-most frequently police-reported hate crimes since 2010. However, in the past few years, hate crimes that target sexual orientation have also been on the rise. In 2019, hate crimes that targeted sexual orientation reached their national peak of 265 up until that point. In 2021, however, this number has nearly doubled to 423.59 Additionally, trends between 2011 and 2020 demonstrate that hate crimes committed on the basis of perceived sexual orientation, along with perceived Indigenous identity, are the most likely to be violent and sustain the highest proportions of injuries.⁶⁰

Finally, since 2011, most hate crime victims have been male. However, the percentage of male victims is highest when looking at hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, where according to the most recent data from 2021, 72% of victims are male.⁶¹ On the other hand, according to the 2020 data, police-reported hate crimes which target Indigenous and Muslim populations are more likely than other hate crimes to involve female victims.⁶² This was noted by community leaders we interviewed:

“There was a time I was going to [a client’s] home, and once the client saw me, the first thing they said was “get out. Remove that hijab thing you are wearing. You are a terrorist.” It was very hurtful, and when I spoke to my manager about it, instead of solving the problem, [my manager] just asked me to remove my hijab whenever I go to [this client’s] home so they feel comfortable. Muslim women are very targeted because of how we dress. [For a] Muslim man, it can be hard to know if they are Muslim or not.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

“For women, when it comes to the hijab, it’s something you can’t hide. You can’t hide that. So, definitely, I’ve seen [events like the London Ontario truck attack] make women refuse to wear the hijab.” – Central Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

Type and Severity of Hate Crimes in Canada since 2010

In 2010, the most frequent type of hate crime offence was mischief, followed by common assault and uttering threats.⁶³ Today, this trend continues. While most police-reported hate crimes are non-violent, which follows historical trends, both violent and non-violent crimes are on the rise (+29% and +26%, respectively). According to the most recent in-depth data available, general mischief was by and large, the most common type of offence, followed by common assault and uttering threats.⁶⁴

However, there were variations in the distribution of types of offences in the last 10 years. For example, although non-violent hate crimes continue to make up the bulk of all police- reported hate crimes across Canada, the proportion of violent hate crimes has increased over time, beginning in 2011.⁶⁵ The most violent years were 2018 and 2019, where 44% of all hate crimes were categorized as violent, and 2021, where 44% of all hate crimes were violent.⁶⁶

Hate crimes targeting sexual orientation and the Indigenous population tend to target the youngest victims, are more likely to be violent, and victims are more likely to sustain injuries.⁶⁷On the other hand, hate crimes targeting perceived religion are the least likely to be violent.

During the large increase in hate crimes nationally between 2016 and 2017, hate crimes that targeted not only sexual orientation, but also South Asian, Arab, and West Asian were more likely to be violent.⁶⁸ This trend continued into 2018, which also found that East and Southeast Asians were now more likely to be the victim of violent hate crimes along with the abovementioned groups.⁶⁹

5. Historical Trends in Alberta

Hate Crimes and Hate Incidents in Alberta

Many of the trends in hate crimes witnessed in Canada over the past decade are present in Alberta. This includes a growth in incidents targeting individuals based on race, ethnicity and religion. The most significant periods of growth in reported crimes took place between 2016-2018 and 2019-2020, again largely mirroring national trends.

Alberta also displays similar trends related to psychosocial characteristics and motivations among perpetrators, with media reports highlighting the diverse background and motivations of perpetrators in recent years. For example, media reports highlight how unhoused individuals, or those with no fixed address, were repeatedly involved as both perpetrators and victims of hate crimes.⁷⁰ However, historically, hate crimes originating from organized groups or inspired by ideology have centered on white supremacist views.⁷¹

As in other jurisdictions hate crimes and hate incidents in Alberta have a lasting impact on the safety and health of those who experience them.⁷² Despite the impact that hate crimes and hate incidents have on the wellbeing of individuals and communities, many remain underreported.⁷³ In recognition of this, it should be noted that this section relies on an analysis of police-reported hate crimes and thus will lack data on hate crimes that remain under-or-unreported.

Data on Hate Crimes in Alberta

As discussed in section 3, the most recent in- depth analysis published by Statistics Canada on police-reported hate crimes in Canada is from 2020.⁷⁴ However, Statistics Canada includes some preliminary data on police-reported hate crimes across Canada as part of their 2021 police- reported crime statistics.⁷⁵At the time of publication, the detailed Juristat on police-reported hate crimes in Canada for 2021 has not yet been released.

As a result, this section will rely on two sources of data: first is the detailed Juristat data of police- reported hate crimes in Canada for the years 2019⁷⁶ and 2020,⁷⁷ which will be supplemented by the preliminary police-reported hate crime data available from Statistics Canada’s police- reported crimes in Canada for the year 2021,⁷⁸ where applicable. These statistics are based on crimes reported to the police and subsequently determined to be motivated by hate, or likely motivated by hate, following an investigation.

General Trends in Alberta

According to the 2021 preliminary data on police- reported crimes across Canada, hate crimes increased nationally by 27% from 2020 to 2021.⁷⁹

Every province of Canada saw an increase, except in Yukon.⁸⁰ As shown in the figure, the number of police-reported hate crimes in Alberta follows a similar and increasing trend to the national trend discussed in the previous section.

Specifically, Alberta saw increases in 2015 and again in 2017, followed by a steady and significant increase in hate crimes between 2018 and 2020. Indeed, according to the 2020 police-reported hate crimes data, compared to all other provinces, Alberta had the fourth largest increase in police- reported hate crimes from the previous year (+39%) when accounting for population size.⁸¹ When looking at the rate of police-reported hate crimes per 100,000 population, Alberta has the third highest rate in the country after Ontario and British Columbia.⁸²

Hate Crime Motivations in Alberta

Mirroring national trends, the largest increase in hate crimes reported in Alberta between 2019 and 2020 were those targeting race or ethnicity, particularly Black individuals.⁸⁴ This includes 46 more instances of hate crimes towards Black individuals and an increase of 18 incidents targeting East or Southeast Asian populations.⁸⁵ However, according to the limited national data available on 2021 police-reported crimes across Canada, hate crimes targeting the Black population dropped 5% following a large surge in 2020.⁸⁶ It remains to be seen if this national decrease holds true in Alberta.

Overall, Alberta saw a slight decline in the number of hate crimes targeting religious populations when comparing the data from 2019 to 2020.⁸⁷ This was mainly due to a reduction in incidents targeting Muslim populations, while the number of incidents targeting Jewish populations remained similar to the previous year.⁸⁸ The number of hate crimes targeting sexual orientation remained fairly steady from 2019 to 2020, with an increase of three incidents in Alberta.⁸⁹

The preliminary data released by Statistics Canada for the year 2021 shows, country-wide, a 67% increase in crimes targeting religious groups and a 64% increase in crimes targeting sexual orientation.⁹⁰

Nationally, incidents targeting race and ethnicity increased between 2020 and 2021, but not substantially (+6%).⁹¹ It remains to be seen if police-reported hate crimes in Alberta also follow this trend.

The groups that have been impacted most by hate-related crimes in Alberta have remained relatively stable since the first statistics were reported by Prueggar (2009).⁹² Prueggar’s report analyzed data from Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, and the RCMP “K” division (covering the areas in Alberta where the RCMP provides policing) between the years 2002 and 2008.

The most common targets of hate crimes during that period were those targeted based on their race or ethnicity, religion, or their sexual orientation. These same groups continue to be the most frequently targeted in 2020.⁹³ What has shifted are the subgroups targeted within each category. For example, the 2020 report showed a 55% decline nationally in the number of hate incidents involving Muslim populations, and 19 fewer hate crimes in Alberta involving Muslims. Despite this decline in one subcategory, hate crimes based on religion remain in the top three categories of hate crimes in Alberta.

According to the preliminary 2021 data on police- reported hate crimes based on the Census in Metropolitan Areas, the geographic distribution of police-reported hate crimes in Alberta continues to shift. For example, from 2019 to 2020, police- reported hate crimes in Calgary decreased by 37, but this decrease slowed (-5) between 2020 and 2021 (Moreau 2021; 2022).

On the other hand, between 2019 and 2020, Edmonton saw a small increase (+2) but a substantial increase of 39 between 2020 and 2021.⁹⁴

Amongst our interviewees, there was a growing and heightened sense that hate crimes in Alberta were increasing:

“It is concerning to me, the rhetoric that seems to be growing. And some of that is coming out of the US…” – Former teacher in the Alberta education system

“[The current state of hate in Alberta] is bad. It’s horrible for the Muslim community. Hate crimes significantly increased when there were rallies in downtown.” – Southern Alberta,

Member of the Muslim Community

“I think things have got progressively worse. I’m hearing more [anti-Semitic] attitudes expressed on social media from notable figures. It seems to be getting worse as animosity and acceptability increase.” –

Southern Alberta, Member of Jewish Community

“Hate in Alberta today is very scary, and it’s shown in different ways by insulting, calling names, damaging property, and also having hateful comments on social media. In different reports from the police show that hate crimes have increased in Alberta over the years. We should be taking action immediately. It has also affected the community. The community are asking themselves “is it safe to be here? Is it safe for me to worship? Is it safe for me to go to the parks and play with my kids?”” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

Severity of Hate Crimes in Alberta

Hate crimes can take on many forms. For example, non-violent hate crimes consistently make up the majority of all police-reported hate crimes, which aligns with the views of participants in our study.⁹⁵ An LGBTQ+ community worker from central Alberta, who identifies as Queer told us the following:

“Hate [in Alberta] looks like someone staring daggers at you on the bus or discrimination just about everywhere : at a shop, trying to get a job, at your job with your co-workers, housing. As soon as they realize you are something they don’t like then behaviour can change completely… It seems that people are more keen on just glaring at you and muttering rather than taking violent action.” – Central Alberta, Member of the LGBTQ+ Community

Similarly, an Indigenous woman who works for an Indigenous community service agency in southern Alberta stated the following:

“[While there are] situations that are more overt, members of my family have been called ‘Listerine drinker’ and have been asked if they are homeless” what she felt was causing the most harm are “those parts that impact your life and make you realize that ‘wow, I really can’t find a place to live just because I’m Indigenous’”. – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous Community

Despite a non-violent majority, there are still sectors of the population that are more likely to encounter violence. Specifically, Indigenous and Muslim women are more likely to be victims of violent hate crimes.⁹⁶

For Muslim women, specifically Black Muslim women who wear the hijab, such violence has been well documented in media reporting during the rash of hate crimes that took place in Edmonton around 2020.⁹⁷ Of the hate crimes targeting race or ethnicity, those targeting members of the South Asian, West Asian, Arab, or Southeast Asian populations are more likely to be violent. On the other hand, hate crimes targeting Black populations are less likely to be violent.⁹⁸ Hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, or perceived sexual orientation, were also more likely to be violent incidents.⁹⁹ Interviewees also suggested that vulnerable members of these communities, such as those experiencing homelessness, may be experiencing more violent attacks:

“It’s the unsheltered people from the community, they are getting targeted like that [with hate]. There was a page on Instagram, or something like that, a page for people downloading videos of them throwing fecal matter on the homeless and beating them up… they were driving around and targeting them. It got shut down, but it was prominent” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

Challenges to Monitoring Hate Crime Trends in Alberta

One of the challenges of monitoring hate crime statistics at the provincial level in Alberta is that they are not readily available in the annual or quarterly reports released by police services (e.g., Calgary Police Services, Edmonton Police Commission). The police services disaggregate crime statistics based on the type of crime, but do not include motivation for the crime.¹⁰⁰ An incident noted as mischief towards property could be motivated by hate, but without contextual information about the motivation, researchers are unable to distinguish hate- motivated from non-hate-motivated crimes.

These challenges were also noted by our interviewees. For example, a member of law enforcement from northern Alberta who participated in our study discussed the challenges faced by police forces in determining the motivation for a crime in contrast to the criminal behaviour:

“Even with violence it is difficult to ascertain what ones’ intention is – it is easier to prove murder than attempted murder because in attempted murder you have to really prove the intention was (murder) rather than simple assault or aggravated assault. With hate crimes intention is a very real piece or element of the offence”. – Law Enforcement, Northern Alberta

Challenges to Monitoring Hate Incidents in Alberta

Another challenge in monitoring the landscape of hate in Alberta is that many hate-related events in the province – such as racial slurs and other blatant discriminatory acts – do not constitute criminal offences. These are commonly referred to as hate incidents. In Alberta, the primary recourse that individuals have after such an event is to file a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, which in turn generates some statistics.¹⁰¹

However, reporting to the Alberta Human Rights Commission is only applicable in situations where the hate incident involved a service provider, co- worker, employer, landlord, or included a public display of materials. This means there is no system in place to document hate incidents in situations in which there is no pre-existing relationship between the perpetrator and victim.¹⁰²

Given that a majority of hate crimes and incidents in Canada are carried out by strangers, there is a gap in the ability to report hate incidents when there is no relationship between the victim and perpetrator.¹⁰³

The table below is a sample of significant hate- related events in Alberta found in a media search. This table is intended to give the reader a sampling of the breadth and variety of hate which occurs in Alberta. Importantly, this is not an exhaustive list of all hate-related events in Alberta, nor were all these events investigated or pursued as a hate crime. In many cases, the incident may be criminal and instead fall into the category of hate incidents. However, as discussed above, in a growing number of cases the perpetrator was unknown to the victim, which creates barriers for reporting to the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

Table 1: Sample of Significant Hate-Related Events in Media Search

Date	Type of Incident	Location	Victim(s) Community
January 27, 2019	Confrontation at Mosque¹⁰⁴	Edmonton	Muslim Community
April 9, 2020	Vandalism¹⁰⁵	Calgary	Buddhist Community
December 2020	Series of assaults on Muslim women¹⁰⁶	Edmonton	Muslim Community
April 16, 2021	Assault¹⁰⁷	Edmonton	Black Community
May 7, 2021	Assault¹⁰⁸	Calgary	Asian Community
May 13, 2021	Homeowner flew swastika flag¹⁰⁹	Rural Alberta	N/A
May 27, 2021	Verbal threats and racial slurs during road rage incident¹¹⁰	Calgary	Muslim Community
June 24, 2021	Assault¹¹¹	Calgary	Muslim Community
June 25, 2021	Racial slurs¹¹²	Calgary	Muslim Community
Throughout 2021	Harassing phone calls¹¹³	Edmonton	Sikh Community
December 21, 2021	Series of stabbings¹¹⁴	Calgary	Unhoused Community
February 1, 2022	Racial slurs and property damage¹¹⁵	Edmonton	Asian Community
February 28, 2022	Spitting and racial slurs¹¹⁶	Edmonton	South Asian Community
March 1, 2022	Spitting and racial slurs¹¹⁷	Edmonton	Southeast Asian Community
March 29, 2022	Assault¹¹⁸	Calgary	Unhoused Community
April 2, 2022	Racial slurs and threat with a firearm¹¹⁹	Edmonton	Black Community
April 14, 2022	Racial slurs and assault¹²⁰	Edmonton	Black Community
April 17, 2022	Assault¹²¹	Edmonton	Black Community
October 20, 2022	Severed pig’s head placed on rainbow crosswalk of a school¹²²	Parkland	LGBTQ2S+ Community

Despite these barriers, community-based organizations in Alberta have attempted to address these gaps and provide support to victims. A 2018 study by the Edmonton-based Center for Race and Culture found that 7 of the 10 community organizations that support victims of hate incidents reported hate incidents to the Alberta Human Rights Commission and that they had the capacity to support individuals in filing a complaint.¹²³

Despite the inherent limitations on what type of hate incident can be reported to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, it is important for community-based organizations to be aware of how to formally file a complaint, as they are often the first point of access for victims of hate incidents.¹²⁴

There is also a need to develop other avenues to report incidents that do not meet the threshold of a crime. This is necessary in order to both accumulate statistics and empower those who have experienced hate incidents.¹²⁵

Another finding from the 2018 Center for Race and Culture report was that victims of hate incidents often believed the only thing that could be offered to them when they sought support from an organization was empathy and emotional support, which they could otherwise receive from their loved ones.¹²⁶

Even when incidents cannot be prosecuted as a crime, these findings suggest that victims of hate need to be informed of the other incentives to come forward and share what happened to them, such as referrals to other external resources which can assist in their recovery.

In another more recent report from 2020, the Alberta Coalitions Creating Equity (CCE) conducted a province-wide survey, focus groups, and community engagement within the five municipalities of Wood Buffalo, Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, and Lethbridge.¹²⁷

Information gathered provided insight into the types of hate incidents that occur within Alberta and how individuals choose to respond.

Of the people who responded to the survey by the CCE (2020), 48% had been the target of a hate incident and 63% had witnessed a hate incident.¹²⁸ The most common perceived reason for being targeted was race at 63%, followed by religious beliefs, place of original birth, and sexual orientation.¹²⁹ These findings concur with the greatest target populations as outlined in Statistics Canada’s 2020 report on police- reported hate crimes.¹³⁰

A main takeaway from the CCE (2020) report was the large number of respondents who said they did not report or seek help after experiencing hate incidents. Specifically, 66% of those who had experienced a hate incident did not report it, and 42% did not ask for assistance, even from loved ones.

These two reports also identified recommendations based on documented successes in the province to better support those who experience hate.

For example, the 2018 report by the Center for Race and Culture identified that all ten of the community organizations that participated in the study had a system to refer out to other agencies, seven listed supportive listening as part of their process, four included advocacy within their scope of practice, two provided advice for self- advocacy and education, and only one provided additional services such as counselling, social work, filing complaints, and legal aid.¹³¹

This concurs with the ideal protocol for support as described by the participants in the CCE (2020) study. Respondents here noted that an ideal protocol should include the support of resources and services, provide a platform to report incidents of hate, show care in the handling of the situation, and act alongside the client.

Despite the social dividends that community organizations create, they cannot do it alone. The current community resource infrastructure in Alberta is not equipped to be a one-stop-shop for reporting and supporting targets of hate incidents. While community-based organizations attempt to fill the important role of supporting individuals who experience hate incidents, there is no unified system that responds to the needs of all Albertans who experience hate.¹³²

Improving Access to Services

A frequently identified need in recent years in Alberta has been a desire to improve access to services for victims of hate crimes. This need has been identified in previous studies Stewart (2007), Pruegger (2009), de Koninck & Lauridsen (2018), and CCE (2020) and through the data recorded for this report. Each of these studies has aimed to understand how hate crimes and hate incidents impact populations within Alberta and how to support them.

The need to improve access to services is compounded by the fact that, as detailed earlier in this section, Alberta has continued to experience an increase in the number of hate crimes and incidents.

Unfortunately, victims of hate crimes and incidents continue to struggle with trauma and sharing their stories. As a result, accessing supports that can further rehabilitation is critical.¹³³ Improving the outlook for those who experience hate in Alberta requires going beyond understanding the issue and instead providing good practice victim services and relevant community supports.¹³⁴

A number of interviewees for this study emphasized the need to better understand victim impacts and the need for improved access to good practice victim’s services:

“Victims of racism and hate require community-based, mental-health support that doesn’t involve the police. Victim services must begin with the most vulnerable or targeted.” – Central Alberta, Member of the Southeast Asian Community

“In terms of victim support, the Government needs to enlarge programming to provide community-wide support to help with victim- impact statements in different languages. That is so important. Without victim-impact statements, we don’t know what we are dealing with.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Black Community

“There are different things the Government of Alberta should do…they don’t really focus so much on the victim. To identify the long-term impacts, we need to [look at the victim]. When people use hateful language to intimidate people, to basically drive them out of a neighborhood… when people use hateful language not only to incite others to violence, but insight others to self-isolation, that is assault.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Black Community

6. The Current State of Hate in Alberta

To better understand hate in Alberta and how to address it, the Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV) conducted a comprehensive study that gathered data from three sources – two surveys with different populations, and targeted interviews with community leaders, practitioners, hate crime investigators, and victims of hate.

This section first discusses the methodology guiding each of these data sources and is followed by a discussion of the results and findings.

Survey Methodology

The OPV conducted a survey with two different samples. In the first stage, the OPV conducted an online survey to gather responses from a representative sample of the Albertan population. The survey was composed of 46 questions that asked the respondent about their demographic information, their experience with hate, if their community experiences hate, and how they believe hate should best be addressed.

After this survey closed, the OPV then fielded survey responses from a second non- representative sample of the “interested public” in Alberta. This sample was composed of Albertans who wanted to share their opinions, for example, because they experienced hate, know someone who experienced hate, or work with victims of hate, such as in social service organizations or advocacy groups.

The multi-sample survey design allows for a deeper understanding of hate in the province for two primary reasons. First, the representative sample allows the OPV to survey the prevalence and frequency of hate in the province, as well as the most selected ways to address hate amongst a realistic sample of Albertans.

It also allows the OPV to ascertain which communities experience more or less hate compared to others, and if there are differences in the suggested solutions to hate. Second, the interested public sample allows the OPV to hear from a larger number of people impacted by hate than would be feasible by relying solely on the representative sample or other qualitative methodologies.

In total, 708 people filled out the representative sample survey (hereon referred to as “general population survey”), and 602 people filled out the non-representative sample survey (hereon referred to as “interested public survey”).

Prior to presenting respondents with survey questions, our survey provided the following definition of hate to respondents: “hostile language or action aimed at individuals or groups based on their ethnicity, religion, culture, sex, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity, or disability. This can include physical assault, threats, vandalism, the use of slurs, or online social media harassment.”

The table below provides the descriptive statistics of our surveys compared to the 2021 Alberta census provided by Statistics Canada. Differences between the Statistics Canada Census and our General Population Survey larger than 2% are highlighted in yellow

Table 2. Description of survey samples

	Statistics Canada Census 2021 (Alberta)¹³⁵	General population survey	Interested public survey
Total Population	4,262,635	708	602
Percentage of Census Population
Gender
Female	50%	51.8%	42.9%
Male	50%	47.9%	53.3%
Other	–	0.4%	3.8%
Race/Ethnicity
Visible Minorities	27.2%	26.1%	30.8%
Non-Minorities	70.8%	73.8%	69.2%
Black	4.2%	3%	4%
Latin American	1.6%	1.1%	1.2%
Arab/Middle Eastern	1.6%	1.6%	2.9%
Asian	18.6%	16.4%	11.7%
Indigenous¹³⁶	7.6%	12.4%	8.1%
Other/non-specified	–	1.2%	3.1%
Religion
Christian	47%	44.2%	33.7%
Buddhist	1%	1.3%	1.5%
Hindu	1.8%	1.7%	1%
Indigenous spirituality	0.5%	0.9%	2%
Jewish	0.3%	1.1%	3.2%
Muslim	4.8%	2.4%	6.3%
Sikh	2.4%	1.3%	1%
Other religious beliefs	0.8%	6.3%	16.4%
No religion/secular beliefs	39%	40.8%	34.8%

The Interviews

Second, interviews were conducted to gain an additional, qualitative understanding of hate in the province from experts, stakeholders, and victims. The OPV conducted 78 semi- structured interviews with community leaders, practitioners, hate crime investigators, and victims of hate in Alberta. Interviewees were selected based on their work with community-based, non-government, or government organizations and agencies. Some interviewees held positions of leadership within their respective communities, or provided services to communities through projects, programming (e.g., anti-hate and racism) and committees. Through these diverse experiences, interviewees developed broader understanding of the impact of hate, and related issues, within their agencies and communities.

These interviews helped to clarify and corroborate the trends that emerged from the survey data, and provided important contextual meaning for its findings. Interviewees were also able to elaborate further on what they believe are important solutions to addressing hate in the province based on their expertise and experiences.

Findings

The findings presented in this section are derived from all three data sources. More specifically, the findings from both surveys are supplemented and contextualized by excerpts from our interviews.

Using these three data sources: quantitative data from both surveys and qualitative data from the interviews helps to illustrate and contextualize the current state of hate in Alberta.

Who experiences hate?

For both the general population and the interested public sample, respondents were divided into three identity-related groups to examine their relative experiences with hate. The first group included all respondents who self- identified as a visible racial or ethnic minority.

The second group includes minority White respondents – respondents of self-reported European descent with one or more of the following minority factors: minority religion (i.e., religions other than secularism or Christianity), non-heterosexual, reported having a visible or non-visible disability, or reported English is not their first language.

Finally, the third group constitutes non-minority White respondents who identify as being of European descent, as either Christian or secular, as heterosexual, without a disability, and identify English as their first and primary language.

When examining the distribution of hate experienced across these groups, nearly half (49%) of all racial and ethnic minorities in the general population report experiencing hate, and over 60% report experiencing hate among our interested public sample. Among White minorities, 35% report experiencing hate in the general population, and 69% report experiencing hate in the interested public survey. Non-minority White respondents report experiencing hate the least (25% and 44%) across both surveys.

In the general population survey, when holding age, gender, first-language, sexual orientation and disability at their means in a logistic regression (see Appendix Model 1a for full model and coefficients), the predicted probability of a non-White religious minority experiencing hate is 24% higher than a White non-religious minority.

The findings in the figure above are further supported when responses are disaggregated by race and ethnicity. Among general population survey respondents, racial and ethnic minorities report experiencing hate most often. Specifically, over 50% of Black, Latin American, and Middle Eastern respondents report experiencing hate, and nearly 50% of Asian and Indigenous report experiencing hate.

There is no statistically significant difference between (non)-minority ethnic and religious subgroups within the interested public survey when conducting the same analysis (see Appendix Model 1b for full model and coefficients). This is likely because the predicted probability of experiencing hate is consistently high (over 55%) across racial/ethnic and religious groups.

The intersectionality between minority groups found in this section was also highlighted by our interviewees:

“Black Muslim women face a lot of violent crimes against them. That’s predominantly the reports that we get here and the things we support them with. There’s a lot of anger among people, and Muslims are easy targets.” – Central Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

Finally, in both regressions (see Models 1a and 1b in the Appendix), age and gender were included as predictor variables. This is based on findings from Statistics Canada and our interviews that some subgroups of the population that experience higher levels of hate are younger and identify as either female or male, as discussed in the sections above. In both the general population and interested public surveys, age was determined to have a statistically significant impact on experiencing hate: specifically, younger respondents report experiencing hate more than older respondents, corroborating the findings from Statistics Canada.

On the other hand, gender was not found to be statistically significant, though it should be noted that a non-significant finding does not mean no relationship exists. It may be the case that gender matters when looking at specific subgroups of the population and their experience with hate, rather than as a catch-all variable.

However, our surveys did not contain large enough sub-groups of ethnic and racial minorities to allow a cross-cutting analysis of gender, age, and race or ethnicity on experiencing hate. In the future, more research should be conducted to further explore these relationships. This limitation also underscores the challenges associated with gathering data on experiences with hate and reaffirms the importance of supplementing survey data with interviews or other forms of qualitative data.

Summary of findings – who experiences hate?

Mirroring data on police-reported hate crime statistics published by Statistics Canada,¹³⁷ our findings suggest that visible minorities experience more hate than White Albertans. This is especially true when visible minorities identify as being of a minority religion. Our findings also indicate that White Albertans with one or more minority factors (such as being of a minority religion, being disabled, identifying as non-heterosexual, or not speaking English as a first language) as a group experience more hate than White Albertans without any self-reported minority factors.

While non-minority White respondents report experiencing significantly less hate than their visible minority and minority White counterparts, they do report experiencing a higher level of hate in our survey than elsewhere. For example, in Statistics Canada’s 2020 police-reported hate crime in Canada data, only 13% of police- reported hate crimes in Canada targeted White respondents.¹³⁸ By comparison, of 269 respondents who reported experiencing hate in our general population survey, 35% were non- minority White respondents.

This discrepancy is likely the result of several factors. Most importantly, though, Statistics Canada data only provides data on police-reported hate crimes. It does not include unreported incidents, those which were reported but did not meet the criteria for a crime, or the criteria for a hate crime, or where the hate underlying the incident was not recognized by the criminal justice system.

On the other hand, our survey provided respondents the opportunity to tell us about a wider range of experiences with hate, regardless of whether it met the Criminal Code threshold or whether it was reported to the police. As noted above in our methodology section, our survey provided a broader definition of hate.

Secondly, while Statistics Canada’s data demonstrates a lower level of hate crimes against the White population, this is not necessarily true in other contexts. Studies have found that, among statistics that report hate crimes known to law enforcement, racial minorities are most frequently victimized. However, studies which look at self-reported victimization data have found the risk of racially biased victimization is highly comparable across racial and ethnic groups.¹³⁹

Most recently, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Hate Crimes Statistics in 2020 and 2021 found that anti-White hate crimes were the second most frequent type of hate crime to occur after anti-Black hate crimes.¹⁴⁰ Data from the United States suggests that, like hate crimes against visible minorities, hate crimes against the White population are increasing.

Between 2020 and 2021 alone, the FBI reported that hate crimes against the White population increased from 869 to 948. However, it should also be noted that the White population is by far the most frequent perpetrator of hate crimes in the United States in both years.¹⁴¹

Finding 1A: Visible minorities experience the most hate in Alberta.

Finding 1B: Non-minority White respondents report a higher frequency of hate than in other research

Violent hate

Among respondents who reported experiencing hate in the general population sample, ethnic and racial minorities are the most likely to report that the hate was either violent (physical assault) or threatened violence (either in person or online). Middle Eastern respondents report the highest rates of violent hate experiences, followed by Black and Indigenous respondents.

Among the respondents who filled out the interested public survey, the percentage who report both (a) experiencing hate and (b) experiencing violent hate or hate which threatened violence, is consistently high. Non-minority White respondents report experiencing hate the least, but for those who have experienced hate, they report being the victim of violent hate more frequently than Black and Asian respondents. Indigenous respondents report experiencing hate most frequently, and nearly 80% of those who experienced hate also report the hate was violent or threatened violence.

Our interviewees also noted similar trends. For example, interviewees reported that some minority communities, particularly the Indigenous and under/unhoused, may be more likely to experience hate that is violent or threatens violence:

“There’s always a safety protocol [when it comes to Indigenous events]. Especially with our elders. How do you get them from point A to point B with minimal harassment? One of our elders experienced, I think it was a hate crime honestly, because the amount of aggression he experienced in that moment, based on the fact that he is a traditionally- looking man with the braids and the beads. [He was] pushed down to the ground and called a “dirty Indian.”” –Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

“It affects primarily the native homeless community. They are the ones who get assaulted… they are just walking around. There was a group who was shooting them with paintball guns… it seems very opportunistic against people who can’t defend themselves.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

“We have [unhoused Indigenous] people coming in and they’re beat up. I’m talking like… beat up. You’ve got to talk them into seeking medical attention. We’ve got to practically drag them there. The odds of them reporting are very slim. They don’t want to draw more attention to themselves the reason they’re rough-sleeping is they kind of just want to be left alone. We take them to the hospital and we sit with them for over 8 hours to make sure they’ve been seen. Otherwise, we’ve had people lose eyeballs. We’ve had people lose legs for not getting a cut checked out.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

Summary of Findings – Violent hate

Our findings suggest that some visible minority groups are more likely to report experiencing hate generally, and more severe forms of hate in particular. Among our general population survey respondents, Black, Latin American, and Middle Eastern respondents report experiencing hate the most. However, when asked what form of hate they experienced (whether it was violent or not), of those who experienced hate, Black, Middle Eastern, and Indigenous were the most likely to report severe forms of hate. Asian respondents were the least likely to report experiencing hate which was violent or threatened violence.

Our interviewees echoed these findings, noting that Indigenous and under/un-housed populations were particularly likely to experience violent forms of hate. The experiences shared by our survey respondents indicate that violent hate is often not simple physical assaults, but can include other forms of dehumanization such as the use of degrading racial slurs and threatening behaviour.

On the other hand, among our interested public sample, over 50% of all minority groups (including minority White respondents) reported experiencing hate. In contradiction to our general population survey, Black respondents in our interested public sample experienced violent hate the least, followed by Asian respondents. Instead, minority White and Indigenous respondents reported experiencing hate which was violent or threatened violence the most.

The differences among Black respondents in the two surveys are puzzling but can likely be attributed to the difference in sampling techniques. Because our interested public survey is not representative of the Black population in Alberta, but rather drawn from interested members of the public, it may not reflect the true number of Black respondents who experience violent forms of hate.

Additionally, because of the nature of the questions in our survey, respondents who have had traumatic or more recent experiences with hate may be less likely to fill out our survey to avoid re-traumatization. This is likely true not just for Black respondents, but for all respondents who have experienced violent or recent hate. As a result, both of our surveys may underreport the number of people among all racial and ethnic categories who have experienced hate that was violent.

However, given that our interested public survey results generally support the trends found in our general population survey among the other racial and ethnic categories, this provides confidence in the universal findings of the general population survey.

To better understand the discrepancies among Black respondents, more work is needed. Future research should pay attention to how sampling techniques of some racial and ethnic categories might impact the likelihood of reporting different forms of hate. Specifically, more work is needed to understand how one’s experience with violent forms of hate may impact the likelihood of opting out of reporting their experiences in surveys and other venues.

Finding 2A: Some visible minority groups are more likely to experience hate that is violent or threatens violence.

Finding 2B: Interviewees report Indigenous groups are more likely to experience violent hate.

Community experiences of hate

When respondents in our general population survey were asked if their communities experience hate, more than 51% of racial and ethnic minorities said “yes.” To identify trends and patterns among specific communities, the graph below shows the distribution of those who report their community does experience hate by racial and ethnic group, as well as by

whether the respondent themselves had reported experiencing hate.

Across all racial and ethnic categories, respondents are more likely to report that their communities experience hate when they themselves have also been the victim of hate. However, in the case of Middle Eastern respondents, there were no respondents who

had not experienced hate themselves and also reported their communities experienced hate.

This suggests that, among Middle Eastern respondents, reporting one’s community experiences hate is highly moderated by whether the respondent has experienced hate themselves. On the other hand, among Latin American respondents, there was only one respondent who reported having both experienced hate and that their community also experienced hate (represented by the 100% bar).

The rate of reporting community experiences of hate changes the least among Black respondents who have and have not experienced hate, possibly indicating a wider community understanding of hate regardless of one’s own personal experience. The largest difference was among Indigenous and minority White respondents, whereby experiencing hate themselves had a strong impact on reporting their communities also experience hate.

However, some racial and ethnic groups in our interested public sample experienced less hate overall than our general population survey respondents. Specifically, fewer Black, Latin American, and Indigenous respondents report experiencing hate than among our general population respondents. However, any comparisons between the general and interested public samples should be taken with caution, as the sampling techniques differed.

Summary of findings – community experiences of hate

Overall, our findings suggest that visible minority groups are more likely than non-visible minority groups to report their communities experience hate. However, our findings also suggest that some visible minority groups are more likely to report their communities experience hate than others.

Specifically, between both surveys, Black respondents most frequently report their communities experience hate regardless of their own personal experience with hate.

In the general population survey, nearly 70% of Black respondents who had not experienced hate themselves reported their communities experience hate, the highest of any group. This only increases by 2% when the respondent reports experiencing hate themselves.

In our interested public survey, although the percentage of respondents who report their communities experience hate increases more between those who have and have not experienced hate, this increase is still smaller than in other groups, such as Indigenous or minority White respondents.

While our survey is not equipped to provide a full explanation of this trend, there are likely several reasons why this might occur. First, this may possibly indicate a wider understanding of hate within the Black community regardless of one’s own experience with it.

For example, given the high rate of reporting personal experiences with hate in our general population survey among Black respondents, it may be that Black respondents are more likely to know others who have also experienced hate.

Additionally, the temporal proximity to civil rights protests which occurred across the world during 2020 and 2021 may also make Black respondents more aware of their broader community’s experience with hate, even if they themselves have not experienced hate. More locally, widespread public attention and media reporting on a rash of hate crimes that occurred in Edmonton around 2020 may have increased knowledge of these crimes among communities. More research is needed to understand why this trend occurs in some racial and ethnic minorities and not others.

Among other racial and ethnic groups, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, and minority White respondents are the most strongly impacted by their own personal experiences with hate. Among these ethnic and minority groups, having a personal experience with hate increases also saying their community experiences hate by roughly 40% across both surveys.

Finding 3A: Visible minority respondents are more likely than non-minority respondents to report their communities experience hate, regardless of their own personal experience of hate.

Finding 3B: Black respondents are the most likely to report their communities experience hate, regardless of their own personal experience of hate.

Finding 3C: Having a personal experience with hate makes someone more likely to report their community experiences hate.

Forms of Hate

Overall, 35% of all respondents who completed the general population survey and 57% who completed the interested public survey reported experiencing hate. As shown in the figure below, in-person slurs were the most common experiences of hate. Stalking, graffiti, and receiving hate mail were the least common, with less than 10% of respondents in both surveys reporting they experienced this type of hate.

This distribution in forms of hate is also substantiated by many of our interviewees who reported being the victim of in-person slurs:

“[I’ve] heard people say “go back to your country” numerous times on the street.” – Member of the Asian Community

“Youth are definitely more radicalized. I go into high schools all the time and people just say the N-word” – Western Alberta, Service Provider

“It’s common, but in very subtle ways… It’s just subtle ways that they choose to throw words while walking by. The way they just treat people in general.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

“You’re [called] names or you’re just in the grocery store and someone shouts “go back home.” You don’t feel welcomed and you don’t feel part of the community. I’ve experienced telling [my clients] that we are monkeys. That we should go back to Africa. We are slaves, and this is the work we are supposed to do. It’s very sad. People will actually leave their careers because of these hateful comments.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

“For all the time I’ve been in Canada, I’ve not experienced obvious discrimination or hate. I’ve been called a “C***” a few times. I’ve been called “China Man” a few times. But, those people, I don’t think they really understand what that means. They thought maybe it’s cool to use that word… Now, but I have heard from other friends that have experienced worse. It is real. I have a friend, when I was going to university, he told me he was living in an apartment. He said one day he entered into the elevator and a 5- or 6-year-old looked up and said “Hey! China man!” I mean, a five-year-old kid! I think all of this is a learned behavior. They’ve been misinformed, misled, or miseducated. That is probably the root of the problem.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Asian Community

7. Challenges and Potential Solutions to Hate

In addition to surveying their experiences with hate, our research sought to collect Albertans’ perspectives on the current challenges and potential solutions to addressing hate. To do this, our surveys and interviews asked about who is best positioned to address hate in this province, barriers to reporting hate to authorities, as well as about potential strategies to prevent hate from occurring in the first place.

How to prevent hate

Survey respondents were asked what they thought were the most effective strategies to prevent hate from occurring in the first place. The distribution of responses by racial and ethnic groups are listed in table 3.

Interestingly, respondents did not clearly endorse any single strategy, but rather offered low levels of support for all strategies. That said, the strongest endorsements among both the general population sample and the interested public sample were for strategies related to education: education about hate in schools and workplaces, as well as public awareness campaigns about how to report hate crimes to the police.

Table 3. What are the most effective strategies for preventing hate from occurring?

	Non-Minority White	Minority White	Visible Racial or Ethnic Minority
Anti-racism programs
General Population Survey	12%	13%	14%
Interested public Survey	7%	6%	3%
Changing the laws around hate
General Population Survey	11%	8%	9%
Interested public Survey	13%	15%	14%
More education about hate in schools
General Population Survey	10%	16%	21%
Interested public Survey	18%	20%	21%
More education about hate in workplaces
General Population Survey	24%	27%	15%
Interested public Survey	27%	20%	25%
More police resources for hate crimes
General Population Survey	4%	7%	5%
Interested public Survey	3%	3%	2%
More security in specific areas (e.g., security cameras and lighting)
General Population Survey	11%	9%	13%
Interested public Survey	7%	11%	10%
Public awareness campaigns on how to report hate crimes to police
General Population Survey	21%	14%	18%
Interested public Survey	21%	16%	16%
Public awareness campaigns on the effects of hate
General Population Survey	7%	7%	5%
Interested public Survey	3%	8%	8%

* Because respondents could select more than one choice, percentages do not sum to 100%.*

Education in schools also featured in many of our interviews as an important component for preventing and addressing hate. For example, interviewees from various communities said the following:

“Where it should start is in the schools and in the curriculum where it is like grade 9 or grade 10. When I was there, we learned about the Holocaust and the Nazis but there’s nothing about our culture or how we were erased from modern society. You don’t get deep into it. You need to learn about it in social studies, make kids write reports on the things that happened to us – you can open people’s eyes.” – Central Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

“I think there has to be a multi-layered approach. For one, there has to be education. When it comes to high school, elementary, people need to know what a hate crime is and learn about hate crimes in general and how it can affect people. You have to start with an educational approach.” – Central Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

“We need more education. Education is basic for anyone. And I think [there is] value of minorities adding into it, strengthening the diversity and inclusion.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

Finding 1A: Among all respondents surveyed, more education about hate in workplaces was the most popular strategy for preventing hate.

Finding 1B: Among visible racial and ethnic minorities surveyed, more education about hate in schools and work were the two most popular strategies for preventing hate.

Who can best help prevent hate in Alberta?

Respondents in both surveys were also asked who they believed could best help prevent hate in Alberta. The most frequently selected among the general population respondents was the Government of Alberta and schools, followed by the police, community organizations, and the Government of Canada.

Indigenous respondents deviated from the rest of the racial and ethnic categories in the general population survey, but not in the interested public survey. Specifically, in the general population survey, Indigenous respondents endorsed community organizations and victim services far more than the rest of the respondents.

Among the interested public sample, the Government of Alberta was the most frequently selected, followed by community organizations, the police, and Municipal governments.

Table 4. In your opinion, who can best help to prevent hate in Alberta?

	Non-minority White	Minority White	Black	Asian	Latin American	Middle Eastern	Indigenous
The police
General Population Survey	23%	21%	21%	36%	24%	35%	14%
Interested public Survey	18%	21%	27%	45%	25%	35%	20%
Victim services
General Population Survey	7%	14%	19%	9%	35%	5%	32%
Interested public Survey	9%	7%	0%	9%	0%	0%	2%
Cities and towns (Municipal governments)
General Population Survey	20%	22%	17%	31%	11%	20%	8%
Interested public Survey	17%	24%	21%	20%	25%	24%	27%
The Government of Alberta
General Population Survey	27%	27%	13%	33%	60%	40%	8%
Interested public Survey	31%	35%	27%	46%	50%	35%	34%
The Government of Canada
General Population Survey	12%	21%	28%	29%	45%	17%	5%
Interested public Survey	12%	24%	15%	17%	25%	35%	32%
Schools
General Population Survey	40%	37%	32%	32%	25%	31%	11%
Interested public Survey	33%	31%	30%	35%	13%	24%	18%
Community organizations
General Population Survey	26%	25%	15%	18%	24%	16%	44%
Interested public Survey	31%	24%	55%	22%	13%	29%	23%
Religious organizations and leaders
General Population Survey	11%	11%	14%	7%	14%	0%	17%
Interested public Survey	20%	13%	6%	14%	0%	6%	5%
Young people
General Population Survey	35%	27%	8%	21%	0%	23%	30%
Interested public Survey	24%	23%	24%	18%	0%	12%	18%
Women
General Population Survey	3%	6%	0%	1%	0%	0%	13%
Interested public Survey	2%	10%	9%	2%	0%	12%	9%

* Because respondents could select more than one choice, percentages do not sum to 100%.*

Finding 2A: Among all respondents surveyed, the Government of Alberta was the most frequently selected as being the best actor to prevent hate in Alberta

Finding 2B: Among general population survey respondents, schools were tied with the Government of Alberta for being the best actor to prevent hate in Alberta.

Finding 2C: Among interested public survey respondents, community organizations were the second most frequently selected actor to prevent hate in Alberta.

Finding 2D Indigenous respondents in both surveys were generally less confident in schools at preventing hate than other racial or ethnic groups.

What are the most effective government actions for preventing hate?

In addition to prevention strategies respondents were asked in both surveys specifically about government actions for preventing hate. As shown in Table 5 below, the most frequently selected strategy overall, among both the general population and interested public samples, was harsher penalties for offenders. Interested public respondents frequently selected reforming hate crime laws and legislation, while the general population sample endorsed the strategy of funding anti-hate initiatives in schools.

Table 5. What are the most effective government actions for preventing hate?

	Non-Minority White	Minority White	Visible Racial or Ethnic Minority
Reforming hate crime laws and legislation
General Population Survey	8%	8%	11%
Interested public Survey	10%	19%	19%
Harsher penalties for offenders
General Population Survey	25%	26%	31%
Interested public Survey	19%	18%	24%
Increasing funding for police to investigate hate crimes
General Population Survey	11%	12%	11%
Interested public Survey	9%	6%	9%
Increasing funding for community programs
General Population Survey	10%	10%	8%
Interested public Survey	12%	14%	9%
Funding anti-hate initiatives in schools
General Population Survey	22%	15%	12%
Interested public Survey	16%	15%	12%
Improving victim services
General Population Survey	6%	11%	9%
Interested public Survey	7%	11%	7%
Supporting anti-racism initiatives
General Population Survey	7%	8%	12%
Interested public Survey	15%	7%	12%
Funding for security around areas of concern (security officers, lighting, and cameras)
General Population Survey	11%	9%%	5%
Interested public Survey	12%	12%	9%

* Because respondents could select more than one choice, percentages do not sum to 100%.*

Albertans we interviewed echoed the sentiments of the survey respondents:

“I think when the police do so little, how is any hate in this world, regardless of if it’s towards religion or towards someone, how is it going to stop if there’s no consequences?” –Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

Finding 3A: Among all respondents surveyed, deterrent strategies (I.e., harsher penalties for offenders) was the most frequently selected as the most effective for preventing hate

Finding 3B: Among all respondents surveyed, except in Indigenous respondents, funding anti-hate initiatives in schools was the second-most frequently selected strategy for preventing hate

Finding 3C: Among Indigenous respondents, increasing funding for police to investigate hate crimes and reforming hate crime laws and legislation were the most frequently selected among general and interested public survey respondents respectively

What should be the top priority after a hate incident has occurred?

Respondents were asked what the top priority should be after a hate incident has occurred. The distribution of responses by racial and ethnic group are listed in Table 6. Overall, the most frequently selected top priority among all respondents is support for victims of hate.

Table 6. What should the priorities be after a hate incident has occurred?

	Non-minority White	Minority White	Black	Asian	Latin American	Middle Eastern	Indigenous
Anti-racism programs
General Population Survey	5%	5%	15%	15%	11%	0%	5%
Interested public Survey	6%	3%	6%	2%	25%	0%	0%
Increase police presence
General Population Survey	12%	8%	20%	17%	28%	13%	12%
Interested public Survey	10%	10%	10%	16%	13%	19%	14%
More security around areas of concern (e.g., lighting, and cameras)
General Population Survey	16%	15%	19%	10%	13%	35%	27%
Interested public Survey	6%	11%	3%	11%	13%	6%	14%
Raise awareness through the media
General Population Survey	8%	8%	15%	11%	0%	23%	19%
Interested public Survey	8%	8%	10%	18%	25%	19%	8%
Statements from politicians
General Population Survey	2%	0.5%	0%	4%	0%	11%	0%
Interested public Survey	8%	2%	6%	6%	13%	0%	3%
Support communities who experience hate
General Population Survey	11%	13%	0%	18%	0%	0%	9%
Interested public Survey	11%	14%	29%	13%	0%	0%	8%
Support victims
General Population Survey	46%	51%	30%	25%	49%	18%	29%
Interested public Survey	52%	51%	35%	34%	13%	56%	53%

Finding 4: Among all respondents surveyed, providing support for victims was the top priority after a hate incident has occurred.

Police Reporting

Respondents were asked how comfortable their communities feel reporting hate to the police. Importantly, this question did not ask respondents about their own levels of comfort responding to the police, but rather, asked whether members of their communities felt comfortable doing so.

These results have been broken down by race and ethnicity and grouped according to the respondent’s personal experience of hate. As seen in Figure 10, the first set of bars along all race and ethnic categories represent the percentage of respondents who reported their communities felt comfortable reporting hate to police despite not having experienced hate themselves. The second set of bars are responses from those who have experienced hate themselves.

Overall, non-minority White respondents report their communities are the most comfortable reporting hate to the police. Middle Eastern respondents report their communities are the least comfortable. Latin American respondents are not included in these results as too few responded to this question.

A generalized effect of experiencing hate crimes can be detected across all racial and ethnic categories: those who experienced hate claim that their communities are less comfortable reporting hate to the police, compared to respondents who have not experienced hate.

This effect is most significant among Middle Eastern respondents, where 0% reported their communities are comfortable reporting hate to the police when they themselves had experienced hate.

Among our interested public sample, this effect is amplified. Indeed, compared to respondents who have not experienced hate, those who have experienced hate view their community as much less comfortable reporting to the police.

Among these, the groups who report their communities are the least comfortable reporting hate to the police are Black, Indigenous, and Asian respondents. Unlike with the general population sample, however, non-minority Whites respondents in the interested public sample were more likely to report their communities are comfortable reporting hate to the police.

Finding 5: Experiencing hate universally decreases perceived community-level comfort in reporting hate to the police.

The trends found in our survey results were echoed in our interviews. Specifically, a general lack of trust in the police and discomfort reporting hate to the police was prominent among interviewees from Indigenous and Muslim communities:

“People are not feeling free to practice their religion. They’re feeling scared to go to the church or the mosque. They’re also scared to talk about it because they feel like the police will not take the issue very serious. So, they keep whatever they are feeling to themselves.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

“The police don’t believe you. They don’t give you the benefit of the doubt.” – Central Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

As a follow-up to this question, respondents were asked a survey question about the barriers that prevent people in their communities from reporting hate. Table 7 shows the distribution of these responses among both the general population survey and the interested public survey.

Respondents could select more than one option. No Latin American respondents answered this question in the general survey, and too few answered in the interested public survey (owing to the small sample size of this group). Among all survey respondents, the three most frequently selected reasons were “People do not trust the police,” “People do not believe that reporting will affect future incidents of hate,” and “People worry that reporting might cause trouble.” Distrust of the police is particularly high among Indigenous respondents, where 82% selected this reason in the general population sample.

One striking difference between the general population and the interested public sample is among Middle Eastern respondents. In the general survey, only 9% indicated that people are not sure if incidents should be reported; whereas in the interested public sample, 67% selected this option. This difference may be the result of sampling, where the interested public survey respondents were motivated to participate because of personally experiencing hate themselves or knowing others who have experienced hate. This may result in more intimate knowledge about reporting barriers.

Table 7. What prevents people in your community from reporting hate to the police?

	Non-minority White	Minority White	Black	Asian	Middle Eastern	Indigenous
People are not sure if such incidents should be reported
General Population Survey	38%	29%	26%	44%	9%	43%
Interested public Survey	35%	35%	41%	52%	67%	16%
People do not consider hate serious enough to report
General Population Survey	24%	37%	29%	52%	70%	56%
Interested public Survey	33%	25%	18%	48%	17%	12%
People don’t know how to report it, where to report it, or to whom to report it
General Population Survey	29%	25%	15%	39%	25%	62%
Interested public Survey	28%	32%	41%	43%	50%	12%
People do not trust the police
General Population Survey	46%	47%	50%	29%	49%	82%
Interested public Survey	56%	67%	59%	57%	83%	64%
People do not believe that reporting will affect future incidents of hate
General Population Survey	67%	60%	33%	60%	71%	58%
Community Survey	54%	80%	92%	100%	100%	64%
People worry that reporting might cause trouble
General Population Survey	39%	56%	25%	56%	85%	43%
Interested public Survey	53%	48%	47%	65%	50%	48%
Language or cultural barriers
General Population Survey	12%	13%	15%	23%	18%	19%
Interested public Survey	14%	13%	29%	48%	50%	16%

The belief that reporting hate to the police would not affect future incidents was echoed by many of our interviewees. Many cited a lack of enforcement in the courts and police which subsequently leads to barriers in reporting. One Jewish Community leader told us the following:

“The greatest problem lies in enforcement. I’ve seen situations where they were quite obviously anti-Semitic, but for one reason or another, that never is taken into consideration when it comes to actually trying someone, sentencing someone.”

– Southern Alberta, Member of the Jewish Community

Similarly, our interviewees noted a lack of trust in the police in the context of reporting hate. Many interviewees noted that when they or victims of hate were not taken seriously when they tried reporting to the police. As a result, many simply do not report their experiences:

“Especially being from our minority, no one is going to believe you. [The unhoused] don’t come forward because they don’t think people will care, they don’t think people will hear or believe them… If there were issues, they don’t know where to go for hate crimes or to go to the police. Even I wouldn’t go to the police either. When people do go [to the police], they get asked ‘what did you do, why did that happen to you?’” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

Worry that reporting might cause trouble was another frequently selected barrier to reporting hate among Asian respondents. Our interviewees corroborated this. For example, one Chinese Canadian interviewee told us the following about their community:

“The parents told them: don’t cause trouble, just work. Keep working and then you’ll have a peaceful life. I think that in the Chinese community there is a sense of shame. They get picked on, they are a victim… people just tend to put it under the rug and forget about it.” – Chinese Community

Other interviewees noted a variety of reasons why victims of hate may decide not to report hate to the police:

“So, when we say hate crime, it could be a big scale between small incidents that people will not report for different reasons. Maybe they don’t know where to report or they don’t feel safe to report because it can jeopardize them in employment opportunities, or being a member in the society or in their neighborhoods” – Southern Alberta, Service Provider

Given the many barriers to reporting, we can assume that the current statistics about hate crimes in Alberta are not fully representative of the phenomena.

Finding 6: Albertans believe education and deterrence are key to preventing hate.

Community Appeal

The Covid-19 pandemic, which occurred between 2020 and 2022, necessitated an unconventional approach to address hate incidents in the province of Alberta. Currently, significant gaps in the approach to hate incidents in the province exist, including in the existing relationships and collaboration between community-based organizations and the justice system. Specifically, more effective planning, pathways and frameworks need to be developed to assist those impacted by hate access support. These gaps can be addressed through multiple avenues and actors, most importantly the Government of Alberta (GOA) and community- based organizations and civil society.

Given the various social justice movements which occurred during this time, the GOA should pay particular attention to addressing issues related to these groups. Specifically, the GOA’s anti-racism strategy should include words like “Black,” “African,” Muslim,” and “Gender” to recognize the specific groups and demographics which face disproportionate hate. Additionally, the GOA has yet to act sufficiently on the increasing anti-Black phenomena in the province.

Meaningful strategies the GOA can use to address these, and other issues, might include building on existing work of members of Canada’s Black communities in the fields of education and advocacy; establishing a provincial office to advocate for victims of hate crimes; and developing mechanisms in the justice system that enable the collection, analysis and dissemination of disaggregated data that includes race.

To better prevent hate incidents from occurring in Alberta, the GOA should take on a larger role in creating a culture which condemns hate incidents as they occur.

This can be done by investing in community organizations and building relationships with the most impacted communities in the province; raising awareness through education with the view of restoring the dignity of Black and Indigenous Peoples; giving recognition to the victims of hate crimes through appropriate social and mental support; and enabling full and effective participation of Black and Indigenous- led or serving organizations in the development of hate crime prevention initiatives.

Community-based organizations and civil society can also play a crucial role in tackling hate in the province. This might include:

educating the public on the impacts and implications of hate incidents among racialized communities, in particular Black and Indigenous Peoples;
promoting and educating service providers with better pathways for referrals or means to address issues of hate and bias-based crime;
fostering coalitions and networks with stakeholders addressing hate incidences and building strong networks of support; and
increasing inclusive and equitable partnerships prioritizing the cultural knowledge and shared concerns of the Black and Indigenous-serving organizations.

– Sharif Haji

Executive Director, The Africa Centre

Community Appeal

In Alberta, hate crimes are a growing issue of concern, especially given the disproportionate impact they have on our most vulnerable and marginalized communities. According to Statistics Canada, the three groups most targeted for hate crimes in Canada continue to be the Black community (impacts of racism), Jewish community (impacts of antisemitism), and 2SLGBTQ+ communities (impacts of homo/ bi/transphobia).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Edmonton area experienced a cluster of anti-Muslim and anti-Black hate crimes and incidents, where over the span of 5 months (December 2020 to May 2021), there were 8 reported hate-related crimes and incidents targeting Black Muslim women who observed the practice of wearing the hijab. Police-reported hate crimes have increased by 71% over the past three years (2020-2022) in Edmonton, which is most likely an underestimation of the true extent and nature of hate crimes. Some studies report that only one in ten hate crimes are actually reported to law enforcement.

Within the past year in Calgary, police-reported hate crimes surged by 41% with a steady increase in reports over the past five years. In 2022, three stabbings in downtown Calgary were linked to hate-motivated attacks targeting vulnerable Calgarians.

From February 2017 to November 2021, the Alberta Hate Crimes Committee reported 316 validated hate incidents across the province. The majority of these hate-motivated incidents targeted a person’s race/ethnicity (70%), religion (10%), and sexual orientation or gender identity (10%). These hate incidents occurred in communities across Alberta, representing more than 45 different towns and cities.

Although hate incidents do not meet the legal threshold for criminal investigation, they have a significant impact on the personal safety, health, well-being, and social inclusion of Albertans.

Given these concerning trends and statistics, what can be done to improve police, government, and community responses to hate incidents and crimes in Alberta? There are three major areas which need concentrated focus:

(1) Education and Awareness, (2) Legal, Law Enforcement, & Governmental Responses, and

(3) Community and Victim Support.

Education and Awareness

Establish minimum standards and support for specialized training on hate crimes for all law enforcement, crown prosecutors, and members of the judiciary. This training should be comprehensive, evidence-based, standardized, and made accessible both online and in person.
Include focused human rights and hate crimes awareness education as part of Alberta’s mandatory K-12 curriculum. Hate is a learned behaviour and thrives in ignorance, prejudice, stereotypes, and misinformation.
Collaborate with the Alberta Human Rights Commission to streamline complaint processes and support joint educational initiatives, which are victim-centered and trauma-informed.
Support further research initiatives focused on understanding hate, radicalization, and violent extremism and other emerging threats in Alberta. It is important to collect real-time data and to continually monitor the evolving trends and growing landscape of hate.

Legal, Law Enforcement, and Governmental Response

Leadership sets the tone and direction. Develop and clearly communicate a coordinated provincial action plan against hate, with clear targets and responsibilities for all ministries and government agencies. The provincial action plan must be accompanied by budgetary and other resources to support
Expand and increase support for the newly established provincial Hate Crimes Coordination Unit to support training, community outreach, and coordinated investigations. This Unit should be structured and operationalized similarly to ALERT and ICE initiatives, which have full investigative capabilities and work across police jurisdictions and agencies.

Incentivize and provide support for innovative practices and approaches designed to improve the identification, investigation, prosecution, and reporting of hate crimes. Both the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police (AACP) and the provincial government should encourage and resource the development of operational units dedicated to investigating hate crimes and incidents within all police services.
Provide specific funding and increase support for the development of specialized hate crime units with the RCMP and police services across Alberta. Currently, only Edmonton and Calgary Police Services have dedicated Hate Crimes Units/Teams, which operate with limited staffing and resources. For the entire province, the RCMP only has one member designated as a hate crime coordinator who does not have any investigative capacity or operational support. Police services need the time and resources to build relationships with vulnerable community members, which can foster mutual trust, build positive relationships, and enhance reporting.

Develop a standardized operational definition for hate crimes, which can be used by all police services across Alberta. Currently, there is no standardized definition of what constitutes a hate crime or incident, which leads to differing responses, gaps and absences in investigations, and a lack of consistent data collection. The collection of this data should be mandated, intersectional in nature, and reported publicly on an annual (if not real-time) basis.

Advocate for the removal of the requirement for specific hate crime charges to be approved by the Attorney General (Sections 318 – Advocating Genocide and 319(2) – Willful Promotion of Hatred). This need for approval creates an overly bureaucratic and cumbersome process, which leads to community confusion and very few actual hate crime charges. Determinations are often subjective with thresholds that are unrealistically high, which leads the public to distrust the justice system.

Develop new laws and legislation to regulate and address the rise of hate speech online (i.e., social media). Hate speech must be subject to reasonable limitations and clear
Provide new charge sections and stronger legal consequences for hate crimes such as revising the Criminal Code of Canada to add specific hate crime-related offences (i.e., hate motivated assault).

Community and Victim Support

Support online reporting of hate crimes and incidents to police services.
Building trust with vulnerable communities. Provide sustainable funding for the Alberta Hate Crimes Committee to support community-based education, awareness, and outreach to impacted communities.
Tone and language Develop broad- based education and awareness campaigns to increase reporting of hate crimes and to clearly signal that hate has no place in Alberta.

Expand outreach and victim services to individuals and communities that are most impacted by hate crimes and incidents, which includes more accessible and streamlined funding to support community safety and the development of community-based responses to hate.

Fund specific hate crime victim

Leadership sets the tone. Together we can send the message that hate is not welcome in our communities.

These recommendations represent only a few of the many multifaceted approaches that are needed to more efficiently and effectively address the gaps and absences that currently exist in responding to hate crimes and incidents in Alberta. It is important that these recommendations focus on all the communities that are impacted by hate. Too often 2SLGBTQ+ communities are not prioritized or left out of initiatives that address hate in our community.

Intersectional approaches are needed to ensure that all members of our communities are included and supported to report and stand up against hate.

–Dr. Kristopher Wells

Director, MacEwan Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth MacEwan University

8. Recommendations

From the results of our two surveys and accompanying interviews we have drawn a series of recommendations for addressing hate in Alberta. These recommendations take the form of two broad approaches.

First, they are fundamentally victim-oriented and seek to promote the creation of an equitable, safe, and accessible environment for victims of hate to come forward, report their experiences, and seek support.

Our recommendations also seek to bolster a “primary prevention” approach to addressing the root causes of hate through public education building on the successes of grassroots organizations already engaged in this work.

Finally, we offer several recommendations related to the investigation and legal prosecution of hate.

In isolation, government alone cannot provide the solution to complex social phenomena like hate. Rather, these issues require a “whole of society” approach where stakeholders with specific strengths are mobilized to collaboratively address elements of the problem.

Optimally, these stakeholders, whether it is different levels of government, law enforcement, the judicial system, non-government and community-based organizations, will work in a cooperative fashion to mobilize strengths while recognizing shortcomings. What is clear from the data is that Albertans believe the provincial government should play a central role in addressing hate, furthering education and awareness around the issue, ensuring appropriate penalties for offenders and improving services available to victims.

Confirming all previous research on this topic, and of no surprise to observers, our findings indicate that hate in Alberta is primarily directed toward visible minorities. This is an ongoing issue in Alberta and across Canada whereby people who exhibit a characteristic of a minority group, whether race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion, remain the primary target of hate.¹⁴²

Our survey respondents also suggest that hate is spreading. While hate is often believed to be primarily aimed at minorities, a significant portion of Alberta’s majority population – people without minority characteristics – report they are also experiencing hate. Additionally, as shown by recent incidents in Alberta, non-minority White Albertans cannot be the exclusive perpetrators of hate, while visible minorities can no longer be considered the exclusive victims.

This finding suggests hate is increasingly contagious across racial, ethnic, and other identity-related groups. While additional research is needed to understand this phenomenon, we believe the contagion might be fueled in part by increased social polarization.¹⁴³ As a result, there is urgent need to take concrete action to stop and reverse this trend as a greater proportion of Albertans believe they are subject to hate.

The findings from our research, described in Section 6 and in Section 7, confirm some trends discussed in previous research, while also identifying new issues that require creative solutions. As described in the recommendations below there are readily identifiable measures that can be undertaken, here and now, by relevant stakeholders to address the problem of hate in Alberta.

Recommendation 1: Preventing hate through public education

Many Albertans we interviewed, as well as those who completed our surveys, suggested that the most effective strategy for preventing hate from occurring is through education. For example, we interviewed several Community Leaders who told us the following about their educational activities:

“At the cultural center, in a regular year before Covid, we receive several hundred groups coming to the cultural center for a tour. Many of these visiting groups, they are made up of school children that are in grade three or grade four. When kids come here, we give them presentations about Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese calligraphy. All of these topics. And all the kids, their eyes went wide. They were amazed. So, I truly believe, when kids are young, they should come and learn about our culture. They would not have the negative attitude toward the Chinese. I’m sure it goes a long way. I think the government can easily do this kind of thing to encourage multi-cultural events [and learning].” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Chinese Community

“[Our organization] has a youth program in public schools. They run through the school year and we offer summer programming.

They do land-based teachings. [The students] have one-on-one time with elders. Language is taught, smudging is available. They talk about healthy relationships, future planning, fiscal planning. Once the school year is done, then they go into summer programming.

And that’s all land-based programming. They go out to a camp, do lots of survival and things like that. So, we have kids from elementary to junior high and high school all filtering through, and then the high school kids mentor. They prepare these kids for the next rite of passage, because that’s indigenous culture. [Our programming] is not just for indigenous students. We have a high number of non-indigenous students who access the program because they just feel safe.”

– Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

Leveraging education to address hate is indeed a commonly suggested preventative measure: many governments as well as international organizations endorse education as a means to address the root causes of hate.¹⁴⁴ It is therefore no surprise that the provincial government has already considered education as a tool for prevention in its recently released Alberta’s Anti-Racism Action Plan.¹⁴⁵

However, the provincial Action Plan would benefit from tangible initiatives aimed at the public education system, which is also where Albertans who participated in our study believe early prevention efforts should begin.

Undoubtedly calls for updating education have been made previously,¹⁴⁶ and for some people we interviewed, hate is too engrained in our society for education to address:

“[Hate] is pervasive, it’s ever-present. And we’re always feeling it. How many more decades of public education do we need to have to solve this problem? It just seems to be so pervasive and so permanent. I don’t think the solution can be public education. To be fair, I don’t think that’s working. It hasn’t been working. It’s been 80 years – the study of the Holocaust. It doesn’t seem to be a solution. The experience that Jews had in the United States was that you had to legislate it, perhaps even bring it to the courts, for it to actually be addressed. Public education takes a long time and it doesn’t seem to work terribly effectively.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Jewish Community

To address these kinds of concerns specific educational modules should adopt evidence-based pedagogical approaches to prejudice reduction that seek to address contemporary and historical fissures in intergroup relations in Alberta. Emphasis should be placed on encouraging broader inter-group empathy, and recognizing the increasingly diffuse nature of hate in Alberta. Concurrently, modules should highlight the more pronounced victimization of segments of the public in Alberta. For example, impacts on Indigenous, Black and religious minority communities.

Additionally, in line with the survey data, public education cannot begin and end in schools. Education and awareness in the workplace were identified as a priority by a significant minority of survey respondents. Including non-minority and minority White populations and visible minority groups. Subsequently, information on hate crimes, their causes, “lifecycle,” reporting and available supports for victims could be integrated into existing workplace training and resources. Developing and adapting publicly available modules and templates, as described above, could make expert- developed and evidence-based modules readily available for employers and employee trainers.

Recommendation 2: Deliver targeted awareness programs through community-based organizations

Complementary to the broader public education strategy outlined above is a more focused approach to education and awareness for communities that display specific experiences and needs:

Community groups that are disproportionately targeted with hate crimes and more violent hate crimes.
Community groups and segments of communities that display lower levels of trust in government and law enforcement.
Vulnerable subsets of communities that are disproportionally impacted by hate crimes and subject to, for example, poverty, houselessness, and lack of access to resources and services.

Targeted awareness programs would seek to build greater awareness about hate, when it meets the criminal threshold, how to report it, what to expect once an incident is reported, and services that are available to victims.

As shown by this report, and by numerous previous studies, there are communities that have been historically subject to bias, discrimination, racism and hate who, due to systemic barriers, including systemic racism, display low levels of trust with government and police. These groups may feel uncomfortable or lack confidence in reporting incidents and accessing government- based services.

Interview and survey data identifies a commonly held belief in some communities that individuals who come forward will not be heard or believed, and that reporting will not result in concrete action or consequences for offenders. This belief is part of a wider problem, one that goes beyond the realm of hate crimes.

As shown by the research, for more vulnerable segments of communities, for example unhoused Indigenous people, there are more acute barriers to seeking redress after an incident occurs. This population may lack understanding of what constitutes a hate crime in the Criminal Code, or have difficulty differentiating experiences with discrimination and violence on the street.

To help marginalized communities overcome these barriers, public awareness campaigns about the benefits of coming forward to seek support after experiencing hate, even in cases where the incident does not constitute a hate crime, are necessary. As discussed in Section 5, many community organizations have capabilities to provide support to those impacted by hate, such as providing referrals to external resources which can assist in recovery. In these cases, even when the incident does not constitute a hate crime, victims of hate can receive support and care, which may help mitigate long-term impacts on mental health and well-being.

More isolated and rural segments of communities, such as Indigenous communities living on reserves or newcomers situated in smaller municipalities may lack awareness of access to resources.

Indigenous Community leaders told us the following about barriers with law enforcement and suggestions for improving access:

“You get to that point of why bother, it’s your law and there’s no point, there’s no security for us, there’s no police officer for us, they’re like ‘f*** you, you’re all the same’ and our own people, who work for the police, are asking why am I here. How come there aren’t Indian police officers in the units?” – Central Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

“There’s not a lot of faith in the arm of the law. The thinking is, “when I report this, am I going to be heard, respected and treated with dignity?” In my entire life, I’ve had one engagement with a police officer that didn’t have me shaking in my boots, I wanted to be open and honest and tell them what happened… but that [police officer] was also Indigenous. There’s the layer. I was comfortable, because you are an Indigenous person, I can tell you this and I know you’re not going to judge or minimize.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

“[There needs to be] more Indigenous and minority people in the front line [of policing]. That would make me more apt to walk through a door where I know that, you know, someone Indigenous is actually going to believe me.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Indigenous community

A targeted engagement and awareness strategy is a critical step in overcoming these barriers and addressing the most acute needs in Alberta. Specifically, targeted awareness sessions should be delivered through established and trusted community- based organizations with a track record of successful awareness programs related to public health. Deliverers should be imbued with cultural awareness and have demonstrable access to priority segments of communities through pre- existing community engagement pipelines.

This could include work carried out through community service hubs, health services and clinics, community centres, and schools. Accompanying these sessions should be available awareness materials such as pamphlets, brochures and online resources that provide readily accessible information on hate crimes, their life cycle and available resources. Given our finding that most incidents of hate do not necessarily cross the criminal threshold, these resources should also indicate which services can provide support in cases where hate does not cross the criminal threshold. Where appropriate these materials should be translated and offered in multiple languages to the most affected communities.

Further, as suggested above, therefore are other means of reducing systemic barriers to reporting. For example, increasing diversity in frontline law enforcement, most especially hate crimes officers, who respond to communities disproportionately affected by hate.

Our interviewees also noted several barriers to the act of reporting hate to the police itself, including not knowing where or how to report it, facing what they perceived as pushback to the validity of their experiences, and facing language barriers to reporting hate:

“Reporting is a big barrier. First, people don’t know where to report and people don’t know if they can report. And then when they do, they are faced with a lot of barriers and gaslighting. Like, “are you sure this happened? What did you do to cause this person to react this way?” We’ve witnessed this with our own clients when we accompany them to go file a report. [It’s similar to] sexual assault victims — “what did you do to deserve this?” So, people get discouraged because it’s [already] a hard thing to talk about.” – Central Alberta, Community Leader

“Reporting [also] comes with language barriers. A lot of [reporting] is inaccessible. A lot of people who do get victimized are people who do not speak English as a first language. Having reporting tools in native languages [would be helpful].” – Central Alberta, Community Leader

Recommendation 3: Clarify expectations of outcomes following reporting and encourage data collection

This recommendation builds on the recognition that some Albertans do not report hate incidents to authorities, in part, because they do not expect reporting to reduce future instances of hate.

While Albertans are correct in assuming that, currently, reporting rarely leads to a successful prosecution, they might not fully understand the broader usefulness of reporting. Here, the provincial and municipal governments should help clarify this usefulness, as well as the outcomes that can currently be expected from reporting a hate incident.

To accomplish this, the Government of Alberta as well as municipalities could create webpages and other materials (e.g., brochures) that explain (1) how to report an incident, (2) how reporting affects current efforts to prevent and counter hate, such as through better understanding the different manifestations of hate, and where these are likely to occur, as well as (3) what outcomes can be expected from reporting.

Specifically, we recommend the government create simple flowcharts that chart the lifecycle of a hate crime, beginning with the experience of hate, and ending with the various potential outcomes following a report, such as the successful prosecution of a perpetrator, increased security infrastructure or police presence in an area where many incidents have been reported. With such tools, Albertans can better understand that prosecuting a perpetrator, while often the most desired outcome by victims, is not the only valuable outcome of reporting hate incidents to authorities.

Many interviewees shared the frustrations they or others in their communities experienced when reporting hate to the police. For many, the process was slow, non-transparent, and unclear. They were not made aware of what the expected outcomes or courses of action might be. One community leader told us the following:

“[Victims of hate] should be sitting down with someone in authority. And someone should be showing them, “okay, your complaint came in and these are the steps we have done, A, B, C, and D.” Tell the victim that this is what we are doing. The police need to let the victim know what steps they took and get back to them. Otherwise, the loop is never closed. The victim won’t know if it was taken seriously or not. The victim won’t know if the efforts they took to get to the police and talk about their [experience] resulted in anything good or bad. Closing the loop is one of the most important things.” – Southern Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

Creating greater transparency around these investigations can help to reduce victim and community frustration around outcomes.

One law enforcement officer we spoke with discussed the potential benefits of implementing a more ‘closed-loop’ system when dealing with complainants in hate-related investigations, which they termed a “reassurance protocol.” However, even in this process, there was still some ambiguity present in whether officers communicated outcomes of investigations back to the complainant if someone was not charged with an offence:

We will go see [the complainant] in person. It gives police an opportunity, number one, to let the victim know it’s not acceptable and we take things seriously. Two, it’s more of the update and letting them know the process… Like, we can do our investigations and there’s a lot of times that we won’t be able to find an accused or identify the person that’s involved in the offence. But I think what really helps ‘em move to the next point is that it wasn’t, they weren’t silent. They were heard – Law Enforcement Officer, Central Alberta

There are significant barriers to reporting hate crimes, stemming in large part from a collective belief among some communities that victims will not be heard, their complaints not followed up on and perpetrators will go unpunished. Hate crimes, especially those involving violence, can have debilitating impacts on victims who are attacked based on their intrinsic identity, through no fault of their own.

There is a need to recognize this reality during the entirety of the lifecycle of hate crime and among the various agencies involved in investigation, prosecution, and victim’s services. This approach and building awareness among impacted communities of meaningful and concrete reforms (see recommendation 2) will help to encourage victims to come forward.

Recommendation 4: Consider Provincial Offences Which Prohibit Hateful Conduct, or Liaise with Municipal Stakeholders to Develop Draft Bylaws

Alberta’s two largest cities have municipal bylaws (e.g., Edmonton’s “public spaces bylaw”) that prohibit and punish harassment or “bullying” based on the identity of the targeted person.

While these types of prohibitions will not eliminate hate and bias on their own, they serve to denunciate and deter such behavior. Further, they provide a tool to law enforcement officers to deal with incidents that fall below the criminal threshold but nevertheless cause harm to those targeted. This may also encourage those who are the victim of hate to seek support by denunciating this type of behaviour and delineating real punishments for offenders.

The provincial government could draft province-wide legislation or work with relevant stakeholders at the municipal level to develop bylaws appropriate to each community’s needs.

Municipal bylaws to deter hate crimes may also help alleviate reporting barriers if victims are more confident that their efforts to report hate may result in punishment. For example, a Community Leader told us the following:

“There has to be a legislative approach. I hear this from the community and from the police, when a hate crime occurs, and we know it’s a hate crime – the proof is there – often what happens is the perpetrator is slapped on the wrist. The punishment does not fit the crime. So, the community is confused. They’re like, ‘so, this person attacked another person on the street and they called it a hate crime, but yet [the perpetrator] is only getting three months in jail? What’s going on here?’ And when I speak to the police in these types of incidents, they tell us ‘we know this is a devastating crime. We know this is a hate crime. But our hands are tied, we can’t do much about it. We can really only charge him for assault.’ So, there’s no deterrence for it.” – Central Alberta, Member of the Muslim Community

If this recommendation were to be implemented, however, it must be accompanied by the ability to track these sorts of offences. At present, in one of the Albertan municipalities which has implemented a bylaw, tickets issued under the bylaw are not centrally tracked by the police or the municipality, which impedes the ability to accurately track the number and nature of these sorts of hate offences. Absent metrics against which these sorts of solutions can be measured and assessed, their impact is likely to remain uncertain. Moreover, failure to collect data in this area will limit the ability of law enforcement and prosecution to collect useful information on perpetrators that can inform approaches to prevention/deterrence, investigations, and prosecution.

Recommendation 5: Provide Training for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service on the Impact of Hate and Bias Crimes

Efforts to improve law enforcement agencies’ response to hate crimes must be supplemented by commensurate efforts to increase the likelihood of files proceeding to court. While recent changes to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service’s guidelines are a laudable and essential first step, monitoring the impact of this change will be important. There are still structural factors that may militate against proceeding with a prosecution where there is evidence that hate motivated the offence. Opportunities for Crown prosecutors and their staff to learn from victims, affected communities, and researchers on the broader impacts of hate crimes may supplement the policy change and ensure its objective is met.

“What I’m getting from the prosecutor’s side is they won’t even look at 718 until they’re convicted in court. What happens is they go through a filtering point where they only read a certain part of the report: the summary. And if it’s not highlighted in the summary, if it’s just a mischief that somebody’s cleaned up, it’s kind of like a $300 cleanup bill… but it’s graffiti and it’s a swastika near a church property near a synagogue in the community. It’s got a lot of impact…but it could get dropped because they may not see the importance of prosecuting that.” – Law Enforcement Officer, Northern Alberta

As this report demonstrates, the impact of hate- motivated offences often extends beyond the immediate victim, leaving entire communities feeling vulnerable. However, research suggests that impact statements are still not routine or adequately considered in hate crimes trials, despite the important role these statements play in informing the Court’s decision on an appropriate sentencing (Provost- Yombo et al, 2020).

The federal government’s introduction of Community Impact Statements in 2015 provides an avenue by which communities and individual victims can speak about the impact of a hate-motivated offence. Through existing or new lines of effort, the provincial government should explore ways communities can receive the resources and support necessary to produce effective community impact statements that can be presented at trial. Additionally, our interviewees noted that language barriers pose significant challenges to implementing impact statements into hate crime trials:

Recommendation 6: Implement new procedural standards for investigating hate crimes

There are several provisions in the Alberta Provincial Policing Standards that guide police on investigating hate crimes. However, police agencies across Alberta employ a wide range of investigative practices. The Province of Alberta should work with law enforcement agencies to harmonize the standards and ensure that Albertans targeted by hate, regardless of where they live, receive the same level of service.

For example, several hate crimes investigators that participated in the research identified novel strategies that their departments implemented to improve investigations. For instance, one department implemented a ‘reassurance protocol’ – inspired by policies investigating intimate partner violence. This standard meant that, among other things, individuals who reported a hate crime to police would receive in-person follow-up from a police officer and proactive referrals to support services. There may also be lessons drawn from reformed approaches to victims of sexual assault.

Similarly, it may be useful to ensure that hate crime investigators are appropriately placed within law enforcement organizations. Police agencies across Alberta locate this unit in different sections of their respective departments. While this variation and experimentation helps to figure out which structure may be most effective, the resourcing and organizational culture of different branches with the same department can vary widely, and some models likely work better than others.

“You have a hate crimes unit that falls under Intel branch. You’ll have a Hate Crimes unit that’s nonexistent. Then you have a Hate Crimes unit that’s in the investigative branch…and then you have a Hate Crimes unit that’s in [a] Diversity branch. So, the lens of the [Branch] really shapes how you deal with things” – Law Enforcement Officer, Northern Alberta

With these findings in mind, the Province of Alberta should convene a working group of police agencies to share best practices and challenges in investigating and responding to hate crimes. The working group’s deliberations could inform policing policy development across the province.

9. Conclusion

The results in this report are based on two surveys that solicited responses from 1,310 Albertans and 78 interviews with community leaders and practitioners, hate crime investigators, and victims of hate in Alberta. The authors would like to express their gratitude and thanks to all those who gave their time to offer input on a difficult subject that can have debilitating impacts on victims, families, and communities.

Aside from the research, the data, the statistics, and the recommendations in this report are the real-life human stories. It is these experiences, the rash of hate crimes targeting Black Muslim women in recent years, the untold stories of victimization among the unhoused, and the historical legacy of prejudice and harm inflicted upon Indigenous people for generations, that must centre and shape our response to hate in Alberta.

Hate in Alberta today can only be effectively addressed through a collective response where like-minded stakeholders work towards a shared goal. Based on these sources of data and our analysis, we found the following trends of hate in Alberta:

Visible minorities in Alberta experience a disproportionate amount of hate compared to non-minorities. This is especially true when visible minorities are members of minority religious groups or Indigenous.
The most frequently reported form of hate in our survey was in-person slurs, followed by online slurs and in-person threats.
Hate crimes are steadily increasing in the province and this trend has accelerated rapidly over the past five years.
Non-minority White respondents report a higher frequency of hate in our survey than in other data reported by Statistics Canada. Data from other contexts indicates that hate among non-minority White people may be increasing.be increasing.¹⁴⁷
Despite violent forms of hate making up a minority of incidents in our survey, visible minorities are more likely than non-minorities to report experiencing hate that is violent or threatens violence. This finding is particularly relevant among Indigenous respondents.
Overall, visible minorities are more likely than non-minorities to report community experiences with hate. Additionally, having a personal experience with hate makes one more likely to report community-level experiences with hate.

Compounding these observed trends are numerous barriers experienced by minority and marginalized communities in reporting hate.

This was found both in our survey and among our interviewees, who expressed frustration at several aspects of the current reporting process, investigations, prosecutions, sentencing, and victim’s services.

These challenges require solutions that are both equitable as well as reflexive and targeted on the most accute needs.

Based on our analysis we make the following recommendations:

First, respondents in our survey and our interviewees view education as an effective strategy to prevent hate. Educational materials should be developed by relevant experts and adopt evidence-based approaches to prejudice reduction. This approach must recognize contemporary and historical fissures in intergroup relations in Alberta, encourage intergroup empathy, and recognize the increasingly diffuse nature of hate in Alberta.

Second, help marginalized communities overcome various barriers to reporting hate. This can be done in several ways, such as targeted awareness sessions delivered by effective community based organizations, increasing diversity and representation among investigators, and providing better access to translation services.

Third, the process of reporting hate incidents and the outcomes from these reports should be clearly communicated to victims. This will help clarify the process, usefulness, and expectations about the outcomes following reporting.

Fourth, the province, similar to recent municipal efforts, should explore drafting province-wide legislation that prohibits some hateful conduct that falls below the current criminal threshold.

Fifth, additional training should be provided for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service on the impact of hate-motivated crimes. This may include, but is not limited to, creating opportunities for Crown prosecutors and their staff to learn from victims, affected communities and researchers, and allow for monitoring of the impact of recent guideline changes.

Sixth, investigative practices for hate crimes across the province should be standardized as much as possible. This will ensure that hate is investigated equally and equitably. To accomplish this the government should convene a working group of police agencies to share best practices and challenges in investigating and responding to hate crimes.

To implement and incorporate these recommendations effectively requires employing both government agencies and drawing on the strengths of civil society, especially community- based organizations. While ambitious, this “whole-of-society” approach offers the most promising solution to hate in Alberta.

Endnotes

Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00005-eng.htm
The Canadian Press (24 June 2021). Alberta RCMP say two Muslim women attacked in apparent hate crime. Toronto Star: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/06/24/alberta-rcmp-say-two-muslim-women-attacked-in-apparent- hate-crime.html?rf
Gervais, B (227January 2022). Calgary police say stabbings ‘hate-motivated’ attacks against people experiencing homelessness. Calgary Herald: https://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/calgary-police-say-stabbings-hate-motivated- attacks-against-people-experiencing-homelessness
Vergani, M., Perry, B., Freilich, J., Chermak, S., & Scrivens, R. (2022). PROTOCOL: Mapping the scientific knowledge and approaches to defining and measuring hate crime, hate speech, and hate incidents. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 18, e1228.https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1228
Perry, B. (2001), In The Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes, New York, NY:
Craig, K. M. (2002). Examining hate-motivated aggression A review of the social psychological literature on hate crimes as a distinct form of aggression. Aggression and Violent Behavior 7: 87.
Perry, B. (2001) In The Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes, New York, NY: Routledge
Ibid.
Ezekiel, R. (1995). The Racist Mind. New York, NY: Penguin Books; Levin, J., & McDevitt, J. (1993). Hate crimes. The rising tide of bigotry and bloodshed. New York: Plenum; Dunbar, E.D., Quinones, J., Crevecoeur, D.A. (2005) Assessment of Hate Crime Offenders: The Role of Bias Intent in Examining Violent Risk. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Vol 5(1); Craig, K. M., & Waldo, C. R. (1996). “So, what’s a hate crime anyway?” Young adults’ perceptions of hate crimes, victims, and perpetrators. Law and Human Behavior, 20, 113–129; Hambly, O., Rixom, J., Singh, S., & Wedlake-James, T. (2018). Hate crime: A thematic review of the current evidence. Home Office of the United Kingdom; Iglanski, P. and Smith, D. (2011) Rehabilitation of Hate Crime Offenders. Equality and Human Rights Commission (Scotland); Roberts, C., Innes, M., Williams, M., Tregidga, J., & Gadd, D. (2013). Understanding who commits hate crime and why they do it. Welsh Government Social Research. ISBN 978-0-7504-9639-1. Retrieved from https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/58880/1/ understanding-who-commits-hate-crime-and-why-they-do-it-en.pdf
Lantz, B. (2021). The Consequences of Crime in Company: Co-Offending, Victim–Offender Relationship, and Quality of Violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(7–8), NP4363–NP4388; Mcgloin, J. M., & Piquero, A. R. (2009). “I wasn’t alone”: Collective behaviour and violent delinquency. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 42, 336-353.
Levin, J., & McDevitt, J. (1993). Hate crimes. The rising tide of bigotry and bloodshed. New York: Plenum.
Craig, K. M. (2002). Examining hate-motivated aggression A review of the social psychological literature on hate crimes as a distinct form of aggression. Aggression and Violent Behavior 7: 85-101; Dunbar, E.D., Quinones, J., & Crevecoeur, D.A. (2005) Assessment of Hate Crime Offenders: The Role of Bias Intent in Examining Violent Risk. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Vol 5(1).
Gough, H. G. (1951a). Studies on social intolerance: I. Psychological and sociological correlates of anti-Semitism. Journal of Social Psychology 33: 237-246; Gough, H. G. (1951b). Studies on social intolerance: II. A personality scale of anti-Semitism. Journal of Social Psychology 33: 247-255; Gough, H. G. (1951c). Studies on social intolerance: III. Relationship of the Pr scale to other variables. Journal of Social Psychology 33: 257-262.
Bell, C. C. (1978). Racism, narcissism, and integrity. Journal of the National Medical Association 70: 89-92; Bell, C. C. (1980). Racism: A symptom of the narcissistic personality disorder. Journal of the National Medical Association 72: 661-665.
Dunbar, E. (1997). The relationship of DSM diagnostic criteria and Gough’s Prejudice Scale: Exploring the clinical manifestations of the prejudiced personality. Cultural Diversity and Mental Health 3(4): 247-257.
Craig, K. M. (2002). Examining hate-motivated aggression A review of the social psychological literature on hate crimes as a distinct form of aggression. Aggression and Violent Behavior 7: 85-101.
Ezekiel, R. (1995). The Racist Mind. New York, NY: Penguin Books; Levin, J., & McDevitt, J. (1993). Hate crimes. The rising tide of bigotry and bloodshed. New York: Plenum; Dunbar, E.D., Quinones, J., Crevecoeur, D.A. (2005) Assessment of Hate Crime Offenders: The Role of Bias Intent in Examining Violent Risk. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Vol 5(1); Ryan, M. E. & Leeson, P. T. (2011). Hate Groups and Hate Crime. International Review of Law and Economics, 31(4), 256–62.
Chakraborti, & Garland, J. (2009). Hate Crime: Impact, Causes and Responses. London: Sage.
Lantz, B. (2021). The Consequences of Crime in Company: Co-Offending, Victim–Offender Relationship, and Quality of Violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(7–8), NP4363–NP4388; Mcgloin, J. M., & Piquero, A. R. (2009). “I wasn’t alone”: Collective behaviour and violent delinquency. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 42, 336-353; Levin, J., & McDevitt, J. (1993). Hate crimes. The rising tide of bigotry and bloodshed. New York: Plenum; Levin, B. (1999). Hate crimes: Worse by definition. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 15, 6-21; Messner, S. F., McHugh, S., & Felson, R. B. (2004). Distinctive characteristics of assaults motivated by bias. Criminology, 42, 585-618; Harlow, C. W. (2005). Hate crime reported by victims and police. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcrvp.pdf
Dunbar, E.D., Quinones, J., & Crevecoeur, D.A. (2005) Assessment of Hate Crime Offenders: The Role of Bias Intent in Examining Violent Risk. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Vol 5(1)
Blee, K. (2002). Women and Organized Racial Terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 28, 421–33; Levin, J., & McDevitt, J. (1993). Hate crimes. The rising tide of bigotry and bloodshed. New York: Plenum; Simi, P. & Futrell, R. (2010) American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
Turpin-Petrosino, (2015). Understanding Hate Crimes. Routledge.
Dunbar, E. (1997). The relationship of DSM diagnostic criteria and Gough’s Prejudice Scale
Altemeyer, (1988). Enemies of freedom: understanding right-wing authoritarianism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
McDevitt, J., Levin, J., & Bennett, S. (2002). Hate Crime Offenders: An Expanded Typology. Journal of Social Issues, 58(2), 303–317.Craig, K. M. (2002). Examining hate-motivated aggression Dunbar, E.D., Quinones, J., & Crevecoeur,
Craig, K. M. (2002). Examining hate-motivated aggression; Dunbar, E.D., Quinones, J., & Crevecoeur, D.A. (2005) Assessment of Hate Crime Offenders.
Levin, J., & McDevitt, J. (1993). Hate crimes.
Iglanski, P. and Smith, (2011) Rehabilitation of Hate Crime Offenders. Equality and Human Rights Commission. Retrieved from https://www.niacro.co.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Rehabilitation%20of%20Hate%20Crime%20Offenders-Equality%20&%20Human%20Rights%20Commission%20Scotland-Spring%202011.pdf
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). (2020). Research Brief: Motivations and Characteristics of Hate Crime Offenders. University of Maryland. Retrieved from https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_BIAS_ pdf
Messner, S. F., McHugh, S., & Felson, R. B. (2004). Distinctive characteristics of assaults motivated by bias. Criminology, 42, 585-618; Perry, B. (2001) In The Name of Hate; Sandholtz, N., Langton, L., & Planty, M. (2013). Hate crime victimization, 2003-2011 (NCJ 241291). Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/ content/pub/pdf/hcv0311.pdf
Wang, J.H., Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https:// statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00005-eng.htm
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). (2020). Research Brief: Motivations and Characteristics of Hate Crime Offenders.
Ibid.
Jensen, M. A., Yates, E.A., & Kane, S.E. (2021). A Pathway Approach to the Study of Bias Crime Offenders. Office of Justice Programs’ National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Retrieved from https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/300114.pdf
Ibid
Bowling, B. (1993). Racial Harassment and the Process of Victimization: Conceptual and Methodological Implications for the Local Crime Survey. British Journal of Criminology, 33(2), 231-250; Sibbitt, R. (1997) The Perpetrators of Racial Harassment and Racial Violence. London: Home Office; Tomsen, S., & Mason, G. (2001). Engendering homophobia: violence, sexuality and gender conformity. Journal of Sociology, 37(3), 257-273; Mason, G. (2005). Hate crime and the image of the stranger. British Journal of Criminology 45: 837-59; Roberts, C., Innes, M., Williams, M., Tregidga, J., & Gadd, D. (2013). Understanding who commits hate crime and why they do it. Welsh Government Social Research. ISBN 978-0-7504-9639-1. Retrieved from https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/ id/eprint/58880/1/understanding-who-commits-hate-crime-and-why-they-do-it-en.pdf
Mason, G. (2005). Hate crime and the image of the British Journal of Criminology 45: 837-59.
Wang, J.H., Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00005-eng.htm
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https:// statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00005-eng.htm
Ibid.
Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00013-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. ”Police-reported hate crime, 2021”. The Daily. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily- quotidien/230322/dq230322a-eng.htm
Dowden, C. & Brennan, S. (2012). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2010. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https:// statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2012001/article/11635-eng.htm#a1
Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021.
Ibid.
Statistics Canada. Journals and Periodicals (Juristat). Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/85-002-X#wb-auto-2
Dowden, C. & Brennan, S. (2012). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2010. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https://statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2012001/article/11635-eng.htm#a1
Statistics Canada. ”Police-reported hate crime, 2021”.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Ibid.
Cotter, A. 2022. “Perceptions of and experiences with police and the justice system among the Black and Indigenous populations in Canada.” Juristat. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 85-002-X.
Statistics Canada. ”Police-reported hate crime, 2021”.
Ibid.
Leber, B. (2017). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2015. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2017001/article/14832-eng.htm
Ibid.
Armstrong, A. (2019). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2019. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00008-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. ”Police-reported hate crime, 2021”.
Ibid
Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021.
Wang, J.H., Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Statistics Canada. ”Police-reported hate crime, 2021”.
Wang, J.H., Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Dowden, C. & Brennan, S. (2012). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2010.
Statistics ”Police-reported hate crime, 2021”.
Allen, M., & Boyce, J. (2013). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2011.
Violent hate crimes include uttering threats, common assault (level 1), assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm (level 2), aggravated assault (level 3), criminal harassment, assaults not otherwise specified, and other violent offences like robbery and harassing telephone calls.Moreau, G. (2020). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2018. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/ pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00003-eng.htmMoreau, G. (2021). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2019. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/ pub/85-002-x/2021001/article/00002-eng.htm Statistics Canada. ”Police-reported hate crime, 2021”.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Armstrong, A. (2019). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2019.
Moreau, G. (2020). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2018.
Wakefield, J. (October 28, 2021). ”Why are Muslim women in Edmonton being attacked? Details reveal a complicated history.” Edmonton Retrieved from https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/a-string-of-hate-motivated- attacks-muslim-women-in-edmonton-reveals-a-complicated-history
Stewart, C. (2007). Combating hate and bias crime incidents in Alberta: Current responses and recommendations for the future. Alberta Hate and Bias Crime and Incidents Committee. https://tandis.odihr.pl/bitstream/20.500.12389/20255/1/04682.pdf
Pruegger, V. (2009). Alberta hate/bias report. Alberta Hate Crimes Committee Retrieved from https://cfrac.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Alberta-Hate-Bias-Crime-Report-2.pdf
Coalitions Creating Equity (2020). CCE response model to hate incidents in Alberta. The Coalitions Creating Equity. Retrieved from http://coalitionscreatingequity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Hate-Incident-BookJuly2020_LO.pdf
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021.
Moreau, G. (2021). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2019.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Ibid.
Statistics Canada. Journals and Periodicals (Juristat). Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/85-002-X#wb-auto-2
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Ibid.
Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021.
Ibid.
Pruegger, V. (2009). Alberta hate/bias report.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Moreau, G. (2021). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2019. Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021.
Wang, J.H., Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Ibid.
Wakefield, J. (28 October 2021). Why are Muslim women in Edmonton being attacked?
Wang, J.H., Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Ibid.
Calgary Police Service (2022). 3rd quarter 2022 statistical report. Calgary police Service. Retrieved from https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/cps/documents/statistical-reports/quarterly/2022/Quarterly%20Statistical%20Report%20Q3_2022.pdf
Stewart, C. (2007). Combating hate and bias crime incidents in Alberta:
Coalitions Creating Equity (2020). CCE-response model to hate incidents in Alberta.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020. Statistics Canada. https://www150. statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00005-eng.htm
Parsons, P. (January 27, 2019). ”Hate crime unit monitoring anti-Islamic group after confrontation at Al Rashid Mosque.” Edmonton Retrieved from https://edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/hate-crime-unit-monitoring- anti-islamic-group-after-confrontation-al-rashid-mosque
Tran, (February 2, 2020). ”Another racist graffiti incident in Calgary raises concerns among anti-hate experts.” Global News. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/8589037/calgary-racist-graffiti-buddhist-temple/
Snowdon, W. (December 16, 2020). ”Woman in hijab assaulted in 2^nd ’hate-motivated’ attack in Edmonton this month.” CBC Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/southgate-lrt-assault-hijab-hate- motivated-1.5843642
Lachacz, A. (April 24, 2021). ”Family call for full police investigation after 14-year-old boy assaulted on school grounds.” CTV Retrieved from https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/family-call-for-full-police-investigation-after-14- year-old-boy-assaulted-on-school-grounds-1.5401297
Dormer, D. (June 4, 2021). ”Police release photo of Calgary hate crime suspect.” CTV News. Retrieved from https:// ctvnews.ca/police-release-photo-of-calgary-hate-crime-suspect-1.5456665
Fortner, C. (May 13, 2021). ”Swastika flag taken down from central Alberta property, questions regarding hate crime remain.” Retrieved from https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2021/05/13/swastika-flag-taken-down-from-central- alberta-property-questions-regarding-hate-crime-remain/
Dormer, D. (May 27, 2021). ”Victim recounts Calgary road rage incident being investigated as possible hate crime.” CTV News. Retrieved from https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/victim-recounts-calgary-road-rage-incident-being-investigated- as-possible-hate-crime-1.5445264
Bartko, K. (June 26, 2021). ”Alberta cabinet minister’s daughter says she was victim of hate attack in Calgary: ’I just was terrified’.” Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/7983497/rajan-sawhney-daughter-calgary-hate-attack/
No Author. (June 15, 2021). ”Police search for man who berated Muslim woman, kids in downtown Calgary.” CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-possible-hate-motivated-crime-1.6067343
Lachacz, A. (August 28, 2021). ”Edmonton Sikh community continues to receive ’disturbing’ hate-motivated harassment.” CTV News. Retrieved from https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/edmonton-sikh-community-continues-to- receive-disturbing-hate-motivated-harassment-1.5565542
Gervais, B. (January 26, 2022). ”Calgary police say stabbings ’hate-motivated’ attacks against people experiencing homelessness.” Calgary Herald. Retrieved from https://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/calgary-police-say-stabbings- hate-motivated-attacks-against-people-experiencing-homelessness
Bartko, K. (February 11, 2022). ”Charges laid in alleged racist attack on woman outside west Edmonton coffee ” Global News. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/8613593/west-edmonton-hate-motivated-attack-2022/
Taniguchi, K. (May 4 2022) ”’We have communities living in fear’: Edmonton police lay charges in six incidents believed to be hate motivated.” Edmonton Journal. Retrieved from https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-police-lay- charges-in-six-incidents-believed-to-be-hate-motivate
Ibid.
No Author. (April 26, 2022). ”’Callous’ assault on homeless victim being investigated as hate crime by Calgary police.” CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/hate-crime-assault-unprovoked- homeless-suspects-sought-1.6431566
Taniguchi, K. (May 4 2022)”’We have communities living in fear’: Edmonton police lay charges in six incidents believed to be hate motivated.” Edmonton Journal. Retrieved from https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-police-laycharges- in-six-incidents-believed-to-be-hate-motivated
Ibid.
Ibid.
Szulc, K. (October 20, 2022). ”Severed pig’s head on rainbow crosswalk at Alberta school prompts RCMP investigation.” CBC Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/severed-pig-s-head-on- rainbow-crosswalk-at-alberta-school-prompts-rcmp-investigation-1.6622738
De Koninck, V. & Lauridsen, K. (2018). Missed connections: Improving supports and services for those experiencing racial and cultural discrimination and harassment in Edmonton. Center for Race and Culture. Retrieved from https://cfrac. com/projects-initiatives/mapping-gaps-and-barriers/
Coalitions Creating Equity (2020). CCE response model to hate incidents in Alberta.
Ibid.
De Koninck, V. & Lauridsen, K. (2018). Missed connections:
Coalitions Creating Equity (2020). CCE response model to hate incidents in Alberta.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
De Koninck, V. & Lauridsen, K. (2018). Missed connections
Coalitions Creating Equity (2020). CCE response model to hate incidents in Alberta; De Koninck, V., Lauridsen, K. (2018). Missed connections.
De Koninck, V. & Lauridsen, K. (2018). Missed connections: Improving supports and services for those experiencing racial and cultural discrimination and harassment in Edmonton. Center for Race and Culture. https://cfrac.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/08/2018MissedConnections_WEB-1.pdf
Coalitions Creating Equity (2020). CCE response model to hate incidents in Alberta; De Koninck, V., Lauridsen, K. (2018). Missed connections.
For full 2021 census results, see: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/dp-pd/prof/details/page. cfm?Lang=E&SearchText=Alberta&DGUIDlist=2021A000248&GENDERlist=1,2,3&STATISTIClist=1&HEADERlist=0
Statistics Canada does not collect data into a singular “Indigenous” category. The number here was calculated by adding all the indigenous responses under the 2021 Alberta census “Ethnic and Cultural Origin” section.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Ibid.
Harlow, C. W. (2005). Hate crime reported by victims and police. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ pdf/hcrvp.pdfPowers, R. A., & Socia, K. M. (2019). Racial Animosity, Adversary Effect, and Hate Crime: Parsing Out Injuries in Intraracial, Interracial, and Race-Based Offenses. Crime & Delinquency, 65(4), 447–473. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128718779566
The United States Department of Justice. FBI Releases 2021 Hate Crime Statistics. Retrieved from https://www. gov/hatecrimes/hate-crime-statistics
Ibid.
Wang, J.H., & Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020.
Hardy, J. (2020). Reciprocal Radicalisation and the Right-Left Divide. Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right. Retrieved from https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/2020/10/30/reciprocal-radicalisation-and-the-right-left-divide/
UNESCO (2021). Education as a tool for prevention: addressing and countering hate speech, Expert meeting: 13-18 May 2020. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379146?1=null&queryId=97cd3f38-cfa5-4da0-bc1e-edc905dc38d6
Government of Alberta (2022). Alberta’s Anti-Racism Action Plan. Retrieved from https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/bdbea411- f48c-4e00-b9c6-5f1afed78031/resource/501d11f8-c036-462f-8f5a-633fb98e9410/download/lbr-anti-racism-action- plan-2022-07.pdf
See, for example: Alberta Anti-Racism Advisory Council (2021). Alberta Anti-Racism Advisory Council Recommendations. Retrieved from https://www.alberta.ca/assets/documents/cmsw-alberta-antiracism-advisory-council- recommendations-report.pdf
Provost-Yombo, K., Louden, C., & McDonald, S. (2020). Hate as an Aggravating Factor at Sentencing: A Review of the Case Law from 2007-2020. Government of Canada. Retrieved from https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2021/jus/J4-101-2020-eng.pdf
The United States Department of Justice. FBI Releases 2021 Hate Crime Statistics. Retrieved from https://www. gov/hatecrimes/hate-crime-statistics

Hate in Alberta: Problems to Solutions

Message from the City of Edmonton Historian Co-Laureates

1. Move from Hate to Hurt

2. What got us here won’t get us out…

3. Embrace Tradition

Executive Summary

Approach & Findings of this Report

Recommendations for Government

1. Introduction

The Hate Ecosystem

Our Approach to Understanding Hate in Alberta

2. Defining Hate

Hate and the Criminal Code

3. Psycho-social Origins of Hate Crimes

Psychosocial Characteristics and Motivations of Hate Crime Perpetrators

4. Historical Hate Crime Trends in Canada

General Trends in Canada since 2010

Hate Crime Motivations in Canada since 2010

Hate Crimes Targeting Race or Ethnicity

Hate Crimes Targeting Religion

Hate Crimes Targeting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Type and Severity of Hate Crimes in Canada since 2010

5. Historical Trends in Alberta

Hate Crimes and Hate Incidents in Alberta

Data on Hate Crimes in Alberta

General Trends in Alberta

Hate Crime Motivations in Alberta

Severity of Hate Crimes in Alberta

Challenges to Monitoring Hate Crime Trends in Alberta

Challenges to Monitoring Hate Incidents in Alberta

Table 1: Sample of Significant Hate-Related Events in Media Search

Improving Access to Services

6. The Current State of Hate in Alberta

Survey Methodology

Table 2. Description of survey samples

The Interviews

Findings

Who experiences hate?

Summary of findings – who experiences hate?

Violent hate

Summary of Findings – Violent hate

Community experiences of hate

Summary of findings – community experiences of hate

Forms of Hate

7. Challenges and Potential Solutions to Hate

How to prevent hate

Table 3. What are the most effective strategies for preventing hate from occurring?

Who can best help prevent hate in Alberta?

Table 4. In your opinion, who can best help to prevent hate in Alberta?

What are the most effective government actions for preventing hate?

Table 5. What are the most effective government actions for preventing hate?

What should be the top priority after a hate incident has occurred?

Table 6. What should the priorities be after a hate incident has occurred?

Police Reporting

Table 7. What prevents people in your community from reporting hate to the police?

Community Appeal

Community Appeal

Education and Awareness

Legal, Law Enforcement, and Governmental Response

Community and Victim Support

8. Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Preventing hate through public education

Recommendation 2: Deliver targeted awareness programs through community-based organizations

Recommendation 3: Clarify expectations of outcomes following reporting and encourage data collection

Recommendation 4: Consider Provincial Offences Which Prohibit Hateful Conduct, or Liaise with Municipal Stakeholders to Develop Draft Bylaws

Recommendation 5: Provide Training for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service on the Impact of Hate and Bias Crimes

Recommendation 6: Implement new procedural standards for investigating hate crimes

9. Conclusion

Endnotes

Table of Contents

© 2024 Organization for the Prevention of Violence

The OPV respectfully acknowledges that we are situated on Treaty 6 territory.