Hamilton sees 61% increase in hate incidents in 2022: police report

Hate incidents and hate-related criminal offences in the city went up 61 per cent last year, according to a new report published by the Hamilton Police Service.

In 2022, police received 174 hate or bias occurrence reports, 26 of which were hate crimes. This is the highest number of hate incidents the city has seen since 2011, when 180 were reported.

The numbers were a big jump compared to last year's report, which saw 108 hate incidents, 21 of which were crimes.

"The majority of reported occurrences were directly related to racial bias, followed by religion and sexual orientation," read a news release.

Lyndon George, executive director of Hamilton's Anti-Racism Resource Centre, said he was not surprised about the increase.

He said multiple trends are driving up the number of hate incidents, including far right extremism in the community "mobilizing and organizing people being influenced through social media."

"Whether it's the randomness [of] someone being confronted, or … hateful marks that are being left, but there is a trendline, where we need to recognize that this extremism is what is happening more and more in communities."

George said part of the increase in reports might also be due to the increasing awareness of communities that are continuously learning about reporting these incidents.

"But there's also a sense here that communities is saying, 'enough is enough,'" he said. "We want you to recognize that this is happening and it is happening more and more than people realize."

Police acknowledged in the release the true number of hate incidents is "likely much larger" because most are not reported.

The report said people could feel like the crime was not important, would not result in any action by police, see it as a personal problem or may even not understand they have been a victim of a hate incident.

"Previous negative experiences with the police and judicial system, whether in Canada or overseas, may also affect the willingness of a victim to report to police," read the report.

Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people targeted most — again

The report showed of all the hate incidents, most reports (91) were related to racial bias, followed by religion (49), sexual orientation (23) and gender identity (10).

Black people reported the most race-related hate incidents in 2022, 40 per cent of which were graffiti related, with 61 instances — which is almost double the 35 from 2021 — and were followed by South Asian people (9) and East Asian and Southeast Asian people (6). 

Gay people were also highly targeted (22 incidents) alongside transgender people (10), the latter seeing a large increase with only two hate incidents toward transgender people recorded in 2021.

Jewish people reported the most (42) hate incidents relating to religion — also almost doubling — 90.4 per cent of which were graffitti-related, followed by Muslim people (5).

"We often say, if there's antisemitism appearing in community, it's a sign of a broader issue that is lurking underneath, which impacts the Black, Jewish, racialized communities as well, and why you have to take that as the alarm in the room," George said.

He said he hopes Hamilton police will work toward making a change for the better.

"We need to understand those trends and how extremism is taking place but also how racism and antisemitism manifests in communities, because if you're not understanding it, then you can't fix that problem," he said.

George said it's important for communities to "have a voice at the table" when speaking about these issues.

"It's not just the data, it's not only hosting another event, it's about ensuring ... there are real supporting communities to deal with what people are experiencing when it comes to hate, racism and the fear that comes with it," he said.