Toronto, June 11, 2008: The Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) is unfortunately not shocked by the recently released statistics on hate crimes in Canada although we are somewhat surprised at the level of the violent attacks, said the Chair of the CRRF, Albert Lo.
"It is important to stress that these are police-reported hate crimes, for one, and while they cover 87 percent of the population, there may be inconsistencies in the determination of racially- or hate-motivated crime," added Lo. "Secondly, we need to be aware that a lot of racially-motivated crime does not get reported, partly because of threats to families, the time required to pursue investigations or just straight humiliation and fear."
The statistics which were released on Monday by StatsCan focussed on hate or racially-motivated crime reported to police in 2006. Significantly, persons of African descent (Black) were the victims of the highest proportions of crimes in all categories - violent, property and 'other', while more than 60 percent of all religiously-motivated hate crimes were directed against Jews.
"The data does illustrate that anti-racism action and education need to take into consideration the different experiences of racialized people. It cannot be a 'one-size-fits-all' approach," concludes Lo.