Hate crimes up by one-third in 2008

Most motivated by race or ethnicity, but incidents related to sexual orientation more than double

Jill Mahoney

Hate crimes reported to police increased by one-third in 2008, according to new data from Statistics Canada.

Police forces logged 1,036 hate crimes in 2008, up 35 per cent from 2007. More than half the incidents were motivated by race or ethnicity, one-quarter by religion and 16 per cent by sexual orientation.

While all three categories recorded increases over 2007 levels, those motivated by sexual orientation more than doubled and were the most violent in nature, Statscan said in a report released Monday.

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