Police-reported anti-Asian hate crimes in Canada jumped 300 per cent in 2020

By Tom Yun

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    TORONTO (CTV Network) — A new report from Statistics Canada show that the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a 301-per-cent increase in police-reported hate crimes against East and Southeast Asian Canadians compared to the previous year.

A total of 2,669 hate crimes were reported to the police in Canada in 2020. That marks an increase of 37 per cent from the previous year, making 2020 the worst year for hate crimes since data collection began in 2009.

The StatCan report, published Thursday, documented 269 police-reported hate crimes against East and Southeast Asians in 2020, compared to 67 in 2019. Hate crimes against East and Southeast Asians saw a bigger jump in 2020 than any other group.

Because the StatCan report only looked at hate crimes reported to police, these numbers are almost certainly an undercount of the actual number of hate crimes in Canada. The Chinese Canadian National Council documented 1,150 racist attacks against East and Southeast Asian in Canada between March 2020 and February 2021.

In 2020, 62 per cent of the hate crimes were motivated by race or ethnicity. Crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity rose by 80 per cent in 2020 compared to the previous year.

Around 40 per cent of the racially motivated hate crimes in Canada were directed at Black Canadians. Anti-Black hate crimes jumped 92 per cent in 2020, from 345 police-reported incidents in 2019 to 663 in 2020.

Hate crimes against Indigenous people and South Asians also increased 152 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively.

The StatCan report noted that 2020 saw “the rise of social movements seeking justice and racial and social equity.” After George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Black Lives Matter protests spread

“While it is not possible to connect the police-reported hate crime incidents to specific events, it can be said that social movements can bring to light issues of discrimination, potentially increasing awareness and reporting, as well as potentially exacerbating crimes targeting a particular group as a result of individuals or groups reacting to the movement,” the report said.

An increase in hate crimes was seen in most provinces and territories. Nova Scotia saw a 70-per-cent increase in hate crimes compared to 2019 — the largest increase among all the provinces. This was followed by B.C., which saw a 60-per-cent increase in hate crimes. Hate crime rates also jumped 60 per cent in Saskatchewan, 39 per cent in Alberta and 35 per cent in Ontario.

However, the rate of police-reported hate crimes also fell for certain groups. Anti-Muslim hate crimes fell 55 per cent in 2020 and hate crimes motivated by sex or gender dropped 18 per cent. Hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation also fell two per cent, after peaking in 2019.

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Sonja Puzic