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• In 2008, Canadian police services reported 1,036 hate-motivated crimes, up from 765 in 2007. This represented a 35% increase in the number of such offences. Part of the increase may be due to heightened public awareness of these types of incidents as well as improved reporting practices by police.
• The vast majority of police-reported hate crimes resulted from one of three primary motivations: race/ethnicity (55%), religion (26%) and sexual orientation (16%). Increases were reported in 2008 for all three types of motivation.
• The largest increase was reported for hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, which more than doubled from 2007 to 2008. Hate crimes motivated by religion increased 53%, while those motivated by race or ethnicity increased by a lesser amount (15%).
• There were 205 hate crimes against Blacks in 2008, accounting for almost 4 in 10 racially-motivated incidents. This number was 30% higher than in 2007 but still lower than the number reported in 2006.
• Anti-Semitic hate crimes accounted for nearly two-thirds of religiously-motivated incidents in 2008. Police reported 165 hate crimes against the Jewish faith, an increase of 42% from 2007.
• Together, about 4 in 10 hate crimes in 2008 were reported by police in Toronto and Vancouver. After accounting for population differences, rates were higher in the smaller census metropolitan areas of London, Guelph, Kingston and Brantford followed by the larger areas of Vancouver, Hamilton and Kitchener.
• About 6 in 10 persons accused of hate crime in 2008 were youth and young adults aged 12 to 22 years, higher than the proportion accused of crime in general. The age of persons accused of hate crime peaked among 17 and 18 year-olds.