Police report shows hate crimes in London, Ont. on the rise

A report presented to the London police services board Thursday shows that hate- or bias-motivated crimes rose by nearly 40 per cent in 2023.

The report tracks both hate crimes, defined as “any criminal offence committed against a person or property” motived by hate or bias towards race, religion, gender, sexuality or disability, and hate incidents, defined as behaviours that are motivated by the same factors but aren’t criminal acts.

Since 2019, London has seen an increase in the number of reported hate crimes to the tune of 270 per cent, while incidents have increased by 161 per cent.

Deputy Chief Paul Bastien, who presented the report to the board, says this isn’t exclusive to London.

“These are trends that are not unlike other communities in Canada,” Bastien said. “We certainly have seen locally, but also across Canada and elsewhere throughout Ontario, similar increases, similar trends.”

Other Canadian police services have reported a rise, with Hamilton seeing a 26 per cent increase and Toronto 42 per cent. Statistics Canada has reported a rise in hate crimes at a national level, with a 77 per cent increase between 2019 and 2022. Its most recent publication notes that Ontario has the highest provincial hate crime rate.

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Members of the LGBTQ2 community were victimized the most out of any group, making up 26 per cent of the total reported hate crimes in 2023. Twelve of these incidents took place during Pride month and 19 of them were directly related to gender diversity.

The report highlights larger societal factors as a potential motivator for the rise in hate-related incidents.

“In 2023, this was exemplified by the impact of the Israel-Hamas war, and the influence of protests relating to gender diversity and inclusion, on reports of hate/bias motivated crimes and incidents across Canada,” the report states. “Within London, the data suggests that these events have also been impactful at a local level, contributing to the broader picture of criminal and non-criminal hate experienced by community members.”

The largest per cent increase was seen by London’s Muslim community, with 29 reported occurrences in 2023 compared with the eight reported in 2022. Of those, 18 of them were dated after Oct. 7, the day Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people.

The same connection can be seen in London’s Jewish community, with 26 reported occurrences in 2023, compared with 21 in 2022. Half of those were seen after Oct. 7. No other groups saw an increase in occurrences after Oct. 7.

“There’s a disproportionate number of incidents deployed in the three months at the end of 2023, versus the first nine months,” Bastien said. “Roughly 1.5 incidents on average per month prior to that date, and between four and six incidents reported after that date.”

Men were both the most common perpetrators, at 56 per cent of cases, and victims, at 38 per cent of cases. Of the 126 occurrences where the ethnicity of the suspect was known, 74 per cent of them were white, 15 per cent were Arab and five per cent were Black. Property damage was the most frequent hate crime, accounting for 43 per cent of the total reported incidents in 2023. Violence came next at 32 per cent.

Board member Ryan Gauss says the numbers are alarming.

“I’d like to hear more about the proactive measures that we’re looking at now and into the future,” Gauss said. “How confident are we that we’re going to be able to get this under control and get into a place where everyone in London feels safe?”

Officers are being trained to better handle hate crimes in the city, along with outreach services being offered, such as the hate crime officer, Const. Guled Mohamed, personally reaching out to complainants.

However, Chief Thai Truong says the current system of individual officers dedicated to hate crimes isn’t enough.

“The new service delivery model will allow us to cross-train the number of officers and not just specialize in one particular offence. Hate crimes is something that we want to make sure our officers build that capacity,” Truong said. “Make sure that when we have hate crimes or hate-motivated incidents that our officers are fully trained, and aware that they investigate it properly.”