Question Period Note: Rise in Hate Crimes

Due to the global and domestic context, Canada continues to see high rates of community tension, incidents of hate, hate crimes and violence.

• There is no place for acts of hate or hate crimes in our country. Canadians deserve to live, work, and practice their faith without fear of being attacked. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hate, are completely unacceptable.

• The Security Infrastructure Program is an important way that Public Safety Canada helps communities at risk of hate-motivated crime.

• Budget 2023 invested $49.5 million in this program. Budget 2024 invested an additional $32 million over six years, with $11 million in new, permanent funding. This money will be used to improve the program and to support communities that fear for their safety.

• This new funding is part of work to develop Canada’s first ever Action Plan on Combatting Hate. For this, Budget 2024 announced $273.6 million over six years, and $29.3 million in permanent funding. This money will support community outreach and law enforcement reform, tackle the rise in hate crimes, enhance community security, counter radicalization, and increase support for victims.

• Public Safety’s Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence is also an important part of this work, and leads the Government’s efforts to counter radicalization to violence.

• Public Safety is working closely with law enforcement, provinces and territories, to support the safety and security of all communities.

The number of police-reported hate crimes increased by 7%, from 3,355 incidents in 2021 to 3,576 incidents in 2022. This followed a 72% increase from 2019 to 2021. The number of police-reported hate crimes in Canada remains higher than the previous 10 year average. These higher numbers were, for the most part, related to incidents motivated by hatred targeting the Muslim, Jewish and Black populations.

The outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas has evoked a strong response among Canadians of all backgrounds, which has implications for Canada and Canadians’ security.
Other forms of hate expression being are also being experienced, (e.g., display of hate symbols) which do not meet the legal threshold for hate-related offences. Certain minority and religious groups feel unsafe and have raised significant concerns about their safety in community gathering spaces, public spaces, and in their homes.

Since October 7th, many larger jurisdictions (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver specifically) have experienced notable increases in hate crimes, while some smaller jurisdictions have experience little to no change in hate crime reporting. However, anecdotally, many jurisdictions are seeing reduced hate crime reporting since December. For example, Montreal has observed a decrease in hate crimes reported back to numbers in line with pre-October 7th reporting.

Security Infrastructure Program (SIP): Public Safety, through the Security Infrastructure Program (SIP), contributes to the Government of Canada’s efforts to help everyone feels safe in their community gathering spaces, particularly community centres, schools and places of worship. SIP supports communities at-risk of hate-motivated crimes by providing time-limited funding for security infrastructure. Funding is available to private, not-for-profit organizations that are at risk of being victimized by hate-motivated crime, including: places of worship; provincially/territorially recognized private educational institutions; shelters for victims of gender-based violence, community centres and/or other publicly accessible community-based facilities used by Canadian private, not-for-profit organizations, associations, or societies for their operations.

To help address the concerns that many communities were feeling because of international and domestic events, in Autumn 2023, the Minister of Public Safety announced an additional $10M as a temporary measure under the SIP to allow communities to enhance security measures on an urgent basis. In addition to the increase in funding, changes were introduced to ensure the SIP was responsive to the urgent needs of communities, including that applicants may now seek funding for time-limited security personnel, and for security measures at privately run, not-for-profit, community-based facilities such as daycares and office spaces.

To allow it to better address the evolving security requirements of communities, the Federal Budget 2023 invested $49.5 million in the SIP. Budget 2024 invested an additional $32 million over six years, starting in 2024-25, and $11 million ongoing, for Public Safety Canada to further enhance the SIP and to better support communities in addressing their security needs.

Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate (CAPCH):

The increased funding for SIP is part of work to develop Canada’s first ever Action Plan on Combatting Hate. For this, the 2024 Federal Budget announced $273.6 million over six years, starting in 2024-25, with $29.3 million ongoing. This funding will support community outreach and law enforcement reform, tackle the rise in hate crimes, enhance community security, counter radicalization, and increase support for victims.

CAPCH is built on a community-based approach with three pillars for actions: 1) Empowering communities to prevent hate; 2) Supporting victims and affected communities; and 3) Building community trust, partnerships and institutional readiness.

Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre): The Canada Centre is working with partners to prevent extreme forms of violence motivated by ideological, political or religious grievances, including hate motivated forms. This includes online and offline dimensions.

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