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  • In 2006, Canadian police services, covering 87% of the population, reported 892 hate-motivated crimes. These accounted for less than 1% of all incidents reported to police and represented a rate of 3.1 incidents per 100,000 population.


  • According to the 2004 General Social Survey (GSS), which collects self-reported data on individuals' perceptions of crime, 3% of all incidents were believed by victims to have been motivated by hate.


  • Police-reported data show that the vast majority of hate crimes were motivated by either race/ethnicity (61%), religion (27%) or sexual orientation (10%). GSS data also indicate that hate crimes motivated by race/ethnicity were the most common.


  • Half of all racially-motivated hate crimes reported by police in 2006 targeted Blacks and nearly two-thirds of religiously-motivated hate crimes were directed at the Jewish faith.


  • Half of all hate crimes reported by police were property-related offences, usually mischief, and one-third were violent offences. Conversely, hate crimes reported by victims to the GSS were more likely to be violent than property-related.


  • Among census metropolitan areas, the highest rates of police-reported hate crime were in Calgary (9.1), Kingston (8.5), Ottawa (6.6), London (5.9) and Toronto (5.5). There were no hate crimes reported in Saguenay, Sherbrooke, St.Catharines-Niagara and Saskatoon.


  • Hate crimes are most likely to involve young people, both as victims and accused persons. The rates of victims of police-reported violent hate crimes were highest among those aged 12 to 17 and 18 to 24 years. The rate of accused persons was highest among youth 12 to 17 years.


  • Most violent hate crimes are committed by strangers rather than persons known to victims. In 2006, 77% of victims of police-reported violent hate crime did not know their perpetrator compared to 33% of victims of other violent crimes.


  • Data from the GSS indicate that the psychological impacts of crime tend to be more severe when the incident is motivated by hate. In 2004, victims of hate crime more often reported feeling worried than did victims of other crime when walking alone at night and while waiting or using public transportation.