‘Troubling trend:’ Hate crimes in Ottawa up 44 per cent

Two things to note here: 1) Ottawa is supposedly a liberal town, but StatsCan data consistently put it in the top municipalities with the most police-reported hate crimes. 2) OPS hate crime unit has done an outstanding job collecting, classifying and reporting hate crimes. To be precise, reporting and progress monitoring problems arise for community development initiatives that work beyond the City of Ottawa boundaries – in the OPP jurisdiction.

Although the word ‘hate crime’ has acquired the most traction, its definition is specific to the socio-legal arena in which it is employed. That’s why hate crime has a variety of definitions.

It is challenging for police agencies to collect and monitor hate crime incidents across jurisdictions without a common, comprehensive, and basic concept of hate crime. Such clarity is needed in a way to avoid jeopardizing jurisdictional comparisons and enforcement responses.

The social, expressive, and symbolic aims of hate crime legislation, which are key to the argument for enacting such legislation, cannot be realised if police forces and local communities do not agree on a standard/common definition for a hate crime.

It would be a dream come true for communities in the East-Ontario region if OPP and OPS could develop a common approach for collecting and reporting hate crime data.