Hamilton community groups aiming to get a grip on hate incident data

Faced with a rising tide of hate-inspired incidents in Hamilton, a local community group is working with area researchers to provide a clear picture of hate in the city and beef up support for victims.

The Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion has partnered with McMaster University's department of social sciences and the City of Hamilton's Anti-Racism Resource Centre to develop a new online reporting tool for citizens to report hate incidents.

The hope is that the website, which the centre expects will launch sometime in the fall, will augment hate incident reporting by providing a platform that isn't run by police and will help provide a clearer picture of what is happening in Hamilton, said Koubra Haggar, manager of programs at the centre.

In the spring, Hamilton police reported a 35 per cent increase in hate incidents in the city - 108 in 2021 compared to 80 the previous year. Hate crime arrests in Hamilton tripled, according to police statistics, jumping to 21 from eight.

But the true picture of the number of hate-related incidents in Hamilton is somewhat opaque due to the narrow definitions of a hate crime, quirks in data collection by police and Statistics Canada, and a police-recognized reluctance among many to report incidents to them.

For instance, while Hamilton police report 108 incidents in 2021, Statistics Canada only reported 91. The same thing happened last year, when Statistics Canada, which bases its data on police reporting, published a drastic undercount of incidents. Its annual report said there were 58 incidents while the police said there were 80.

Police said there were errors in the classification of some incidents resulting in an undercount, but it was too late to correct them for the 2021 Statistics Canada report.

Regardless, the data all points to a rising number of incidents over the last few years after a period of decline.

According to police data, there were 136 total incidents, including five arrests for hate crimes. That fell to 72 by 2020, but has been on the rise since.

Kim Martin, co-chair of No Hate In The Hammer, said while strides have been made with public education programs and efforts to build community coalitions, we clearly have work to do in Hamilton."

Some incidents are very public, including an Aug 1 incident on a city bus where people were targeted by a man shouting transphobic and homophobic slurs. Christopher Pretula, 41, is charged with assault and uttering threats in connection with the incident and police say they are going to make an application to have the case classified as a hate crime.

But most incidents go largely unnoticed because they don't get reported.

There is an absence of data on incidents. Many people don't report incidents that happen to them because they may feel that those incidents aren't going to result in any substantial action," said Martin.

A public hate incident in July, for instance, which saw a man bang on the window of a motorist while shouting racists slurs in the area of Main and Ottawa streets, was classified as a hate incident by police, but no further investigation was launched. The man, who was a Hamilton Health Sciences employee, is not facing criminal charges, but is no longer employed by HHS.

People that have been experiencing hate incidents based on their sexual orientation, their religion, their race and ethnicity, they also may be reluctant to report something," said Martin.

That is where the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion project could help, said Haggar.

When it launches, the website will be a safe place for people to report hate incidents. If it works, the data collected may help paint a more robust picture of hate incidents in Hamilton.

Part of building that safe space will be having immediate tools and connections to supports for those who have been subject to hate, she said.

I think it's important to provide that space for people and allow people to share their experiences, but also learn what the resources may look like," Haggar said. What are the next steps and what support (groups) can they share this information with and feel safe coming from those sorts of incidents. I think it's so important to have that offered to the community."

Grant LaFleche is an investigative reporter with The Spectator. Reach him via email: glafleche@torstar.ca