Lethbridge Police vehicle. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Two incidents in Lethbridge

Alberta only province with fewer police-reported hate crimes in 2019

Mar 29, 2021 | 11:53 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – While having any hate crimes is nothing to be proud of, Albertans can take solace in the fact that there were fewer incidents reported to police in 2019.

Stats Canada has compiled these matters from police departments across the country, finding that, nationally, there was a seven per cent increase in hate crimes that were reported to police. The year’s total was 1,946.

56 per cent of these cases involved non-violent attacks such as verbal abuse, comments online, or general mischief.

Both non-violent (+6 per cent) and violent (+8 per cent) hate crimes increased in 2019.

Most commonly, race or ethnicity was the motivating factor (46%).

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Victims in race-based hate crimes were most frequently Arab or black.

Religion was also a significant basis for hate crimes with 608 incidents across Canada in 2019. That represents a seven per cent decline from the previous year.

People belonging to Jewish or Muslim faiths were targeted more frequently.

In Alberta, hate crimes were reported to police 207 times in 2019, making up just over 10 per cent of the Canadian total.

It was the only province or territory to see fewer incidents in 2019 compared to 2018, falling by around 15 per cent.

Stats Canada says this includes two reported hate crimes in Lethbridge for 2019. The city had three in 2018 and two in 2017.

Nationally over a five-year period, 82 per cent of police-reported hate crimes were investigated but no charges being laid. Only three per cent of perpetrators were convicted and sentenced to custody.

The full report on police-reported hate crimes in Canada for 2019 can be read here.