'Unacceptable': Sask. Human Rights Commissioner on rise in hate crime
Despite seeing an increase, the province's rate of police-reported hate crimes is below the national average.
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A recently reported increase in hate crime within Saskatchewan was met with statements of condemnation from the province’s government and human rights commission.
A report, released Thursday by Statistics Canada, shows a 60-per-cent per capita increase in police-reported hate crimes in Saskatchewan from 2019 to 2020. The province trailed only Nova Scotia (70 per cent) in terms of largest increase across the country in that timeframe. An increase of 60 per cent was also documented in B.C.
“This is unacceptable. Every person in Saskatchewan has the right to live a life free of discrimination, exclusion, and hate,” says a statement attributed to Barry Wilcox, chief commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.
Saskatchewan’s 60-per-cent increase was far higher than the national increase of 35 per cent.
In 2020, there were 53 police-reported hate crimes documented in Saskatchewan. That’s up from 33 in the year prior.
“Hateful acts, like the ones recently reported by Statistics Canada, do not occur in a vacuum,” the statement from Wilcox reads.
“Words matter. They have power. This power demands that each of us use our words responsibly and within reasonable bounds because hate speech is a steppingstone to hate crime.”
The province’s Ministry of Justice offered its own statement in response to the report.
“Saskatchewan is committed to ensuring that all people are treated equally under the law. Racism, hate and intolerance have no place in our province,” says an email sent to the Leader-Post by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General.
The statement went on to say “it should be noted that despite the increase cited in Statistics Canada’s most recent report, Saskatchewan’s rate of police-reported hate crimes remains significantly lower than the Canadian average.
Saskatchewan’s 2020 rate of 4.6 police-reported hate crimes per 100,000 people was below the national average of seven. It was also well below the rates documented in B.C. and Ontario at 10.1 and 7.9, respectively.
The Ministry of Justice statement indicates that the government is “dedicated to working with police and community partners to address racism in Saskatchewan and ensure that all people are welcomed and treated equally in our province.”
It goes on to say the government has taken steps to “address systemic racism and ensure people are treated fairly in the justice system.”
An available table breaks hate crime numbers down by type of motivation, with the category titled “race or ethnicity” seeing the largest bump in Saskatchewan, moving from 15 incidents in 2019 to 28 in 2020.
The report asks readers to consider that police-reported hate crimes are just that — crimes reported to police — and only represent “one dimension” in the analysis of hate crimes.
“Victims of crime may also be influenced by, among other things, language barriers, issues of trust or confidence in the police, or fear additional victimization or stigma by the very act of reporting,” the report states.
In his response to the report, Wilcox said combatting hate is everyone’s responsibility.
“Collectively, we need to stand up, speak out, and challenge hate and discrimination in all its forms. It is the responsibility of the entire community to confront hate when we witness it — whether online or in-person.”
Hate crime rates differ between the province’s two major cities, with Regina recording five incidents for a rate of 1.9 per 100,000 people in 2020 — less than half of the 11 incidents (rate of 4.4) reported in 2016. Saskatoon recorded 17 incidents in 2020, for a rate of five incidents per 100,000 people.
“As responsible citizens, and members of one human family, we have an obligation to do what is right,” Wilcox said.
“We must choose understanding over ignorance, inclusion over division, and respect over hate.”
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