Back to SearchMedia Release
Ontario Police Leaders Embark on Updating Key Hate/Bias Crime Resource Document
Police Concerned with Hate/Bias Crimes and Impact on Communities
For Immediate Release: January 12, 2024
(Toronto, ON) – Ontario’s police leaders have embarked on an update of a key resource document on hate and bias crimes in response to growing concerns about the impact of hate and bias-related incidents and crimes related to world events that are impacting the safety and well-being of individuals and groups across Ontario.
The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police’s (OACP) Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee produced a Hate/Bias Crime: A Review of Policies, Practices, and Challenges document in 2020. It is designed to assist police officers and other personnel in effectively dealing with criminal incidents and criminal activities motivated by hate toward identifiable individuals and groups.
The OACP Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee will take the lead in revamping the document, which was built on the work of Dr. Timothy Bryan of Dalhousie University.
“Hate motivated crimes and incidents can be influenced by many different factors. As we have seen over the last few years, that includes world events that often motivate individuals and groups in Canada to engage in activities which could be deemed to be a hate crime or hate incident,” said Deputy Chief Julie Craddock (Sarnia Police Service), the Committee’s Co-Chair.
Deputy Craddock emphasized that Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees certain rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedoms of opinion, expression and peaceful assembly. Police services play a key role in ensuring citizens can enjoy those rights in a respectful and safe manner. However, these rights are not without limitations. Ontario police services are concerned about incidents of public expressions of hate and violence and the harm they cause in our communities.
Hate/Bias Crime: A Review of Policies, Practices, and Challenges is designed to assist police services by providing information and practical resources to address challenges related to the investigation and frontline policing of hate/bias crimes and to provide strategies for more effective interventions to prevent their occurrence.
Hate/bias crime is defined in the Criminal Code of Canada in sections 318, 319, 430(4.1) and the purposes and principles of sentencing (718.2(a)(i)). These criminal acts represent a clear danger to the safety and well-being of individuals as members of diverse and distinct communities in Ontario.
“Hate/bias crime” is a broad legal term that encompasses a diversity of motives, perpetrators, victims, behaviours, and harms. Research has identified individuals and groups that are at particular risk of hate/bias crime victimization, including Indigenous peoples and those targeted because of race, religion, ethnicity, national orientation, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, disability, or an intersection of more than one of these identities.
“The OACP believes that hate/bias crimes are high profile crimes that must be handled by police with commitment and sensitivity. Such crimes/incidents are traumatizing to individuals and communities and are a drain on police resources,” said Inspector Feras Ismail (Peel Regional Police), the OACP EDI Committee’s Co-Chair. “It is important that our police personnel are equipped with the skills and knowledge to effectively respond to hate and bias-motivated occurrences and crimes.”
-30-
A copy of the current version of Hate/Bias Crime: A Review of Policies, Practices, and Challenges is available here.
For more information, contact:
José Luís (Joe) Couto
Director of Government Relations & Communications
T. (416) 926-0424 ext. 22
C. (416) 919-9798
E. media@oacp.ca
X @OACPOfficial
@OACPCertificate
Facebook
http://facebook.com/OACPOfficial
Instagram: @OACPOfficial
YouTube
http://youtube.com/OACPOfficial
The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police is the Voice of Ontario’s Police Leaders
Members of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police serve their communities as the senior police leaders in municipal, regional, provincial, national, and Indigenous police services across Ontario
Subscribe