Stand-alone offence will help investigate, prosecute hate crimes, experts say

The words 'FEED ME' are seen painted in red on the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa on Monday, June 9, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA — A provision in the federal government’s proposed hate crime bill to create a stand-alone hate crime offence will make it easier to investigate and prosecute those crimes, some experts say.

“The entire system, the way it’s running right now, has weaknesses that cause the prosecution of hate crimes to be minimal,” said Stephen Camp, who spent decades as a police officer and now works for the Organization for the Prevention of Violence.

Currently, the Criminal Code has hate propaganda provisions around advocating genocide, public incitement and wilful promotion of hatred, and wilful promotion of antisemitism. It also recognizes as an offence mischief that is motivated by bias, prejudice or hate.

But other hate crimes, such as those involving homicide or assault, don’t have specific offences in the Criminal Code. Instead, hate is identified as an aggravating factor at sentencing.

Camp said prosecutors and many Canadian police services sometimes lack specialization or expertise in such crimes.

That means a hate-motivated assault, for example, will be classified “as an assault by police service…and then prosecuted as an assault where the hate motivating factor is lost.”

Among other new provisions, Bill C-9 would create a specific hate crime offence for offences motivated by hatred. It’s something Camp has been a longtime advocate of.

He said having a stand-alone offence for hate crimes means “we’re going to have the ability to understand, identify, record it, document it, and investigate it better, which is going to bleed into better prosecutions.”

The Liberals introduced bill C-9 to address a stark increase in hate crimes, particularly those involving antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Rise in hate crime

Statistics Canada reported in March that there was a 169 per cent increase in reported hate crimes between 2018 and 2024, from 1,817 reported incidents to 4,882. It was the sixth straight year of increased reports, though the increase in 2024 compared with 2023 was small, at just one per cent.

Hate crimes involving antisemitism nearly tripled from 331 in 2018 to 920 reported incidents in 2024. Incidents involving Islamophobia likewise nearly tripled, growing from 84 reported crimes to 229.

About 55 per cent of the incidents reported in 2024 were non-violent, including 2,165 incidents of mischief, and 146 incidents of public incitement of hatred or genocide.

The rest were considered violent, including 585 reported hate-motivated threats, 781 common assaults and 341 major assaults.

Statistics Canada also reported that between 2022 and 2024, just under half of violent hate crimes were cleared, meaning a suspect was charged or there was enough evidence to recommend a charge be laid. That rate is similar to the clear rate other violent crimes.

The RCMP reported that between Jan. 1, 2025 and April 6, 2026, it recorded 994 hate-motivated crimes, of which 13 per cent were cleared.

On non-violent hate crimes, Statistics Canada says the clear rate of 13.8 per cent, was significantly lower than other non-violent crimes, at 30.6 per cent.

Statistics Canada said that number was low because many of those non-violent hate crimes were mischief-related, “which tend to be more difficult to solve due to challenges in identifying perpetrators.”

Camp indicated statistics don’t include all the hate crime in Canada — such as those that end up prosecuted as assaults only, without hate as an aggravating factor.

‘Entire community who sees that they are not safe’

Bill C-9 passed the House of Commons in March and is currently before the Senate human rights committee. Justice Minister Sean Fraser told that committee on Thursday former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler is the one who convinced him of the importance of having a stand-alone hate crime provision.

Fraser gave the example of an assault in an Ottawa grocery store last year, in which a 71-year-old man allegedly stabbed an elderly Jewish woman in Ottawa in what police consider to be a hate-motivated crime.

“This is not just the individual who is being impacted, but an entire community who sees that they are not safe when they experience life in Canada,” Fraser said.

“So from my perspective, we need to recognize that through a separate criminal charge, there is a different moral culpability for assaulting someone, versus assaulting someone because of the colour of their skin, the person they love or the God that they pray to.”

Barbara Perry, a professor and director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University, said the legislation will make it more clear to police what a hate crime is.

“My work with law enforcement has found that one of the reasons that hate crime goes unrecorded is a lack of understanding of what constitutes a hate crime,” she said in an email.

“The legislation will overcome this as it is much clearer.”

Perry said officers she has worked with have indicated that the provisions allowing hate to be identified as a motivating factor at sentencing are invoked only rarely.

Even when they are, “there is usually no feedback loop that lets officers know that the investigation into hate motivation had some impact. That being the case, why bother going to the extra effort?”

Under Bill C-9, given “there would be a concrete charge, rather than the possibility of enhanced penalties (much) later during sentencing there would no longer be a disincentive to fully investigate that.”

Some organizations have consistently complained that the hate motivation is rarely reflected in sentencing, often despite the judge recognizing a hateful component.

‘Feed me’

In one recent incident in January, Iain Aspenlieder, a former lawyer for the City of Ottawa, received a suspended sentence and two years of probation, after pleading guilty to mischief for scrawling the words “feed me” in red paint on the National Holocaust Monument.

At the time, there were global protests around the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the risks of famine.

In her decision, Judge Anne London-Weinstein noted the Crown had “vigorously argued” the offence was motivated by hate. However she said she was not satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the crime was motivated by hate. She acknowledged Aspenlieder “knew his actions would cause harm to the Jewish people and he acted anyway.”

Richard Marceau, senior vice-president of strategic initiatives and general counsel of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said Bill C-9 will provide new tools but it’s up to police and prosecutors to use them.

He said there are many cases of non-violent incidents where the Crown will choose to use diversion, which is a process through which charges are withdrawn or stayed.

“That is problematic because I think there’s a lack of recognition by law enforcement that even if something is not violent, the message that it sends and the impact that those things can have on a community is much wider than they think,” Marceau said.

Marceau said Parliament should adopt Bill C-9 but warned “it’s not a panacea.”

Steven Zhou, spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said his group has concerns about some aspects of the legislation, including a new offence that would make it a criminal offence to wilfully promote hate by displaying certain symbols.

Individuals “bearing Quranic or Islamic Scripture may be arrested as well, since many terrorist groups have appropriated such Scripture onto their flags, or as part of their symbols,” he said in an email.

“In reality, will police officers also be able to differentiate between what should fall under this provision versus innocent symbols?”

Zhou said whether the bill leads to more hate crime charges or not, “we must make sure that this legislation helps target and charge the right individuals — those who are clearly promoting or carrying out hate.”

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press