Hate motivated crimes and discrimination against persons with activity limitations

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Under the Criminal Code, a crime committed against a person with a disability may be considered as a hate motivated crime if hate is the perpetrator's main motivation. Hate motivated crimes against persons with disabilities are however infrequent. In 2006, participating Canadian police departments¹ reported only 2 violent hate motivated crimes against disabled persons (Dauvergne et al., 2006). Result from the General Social Survey (GSS) indicate that 12%² of violent crimes against persons with disabilities (about 36,600 incidents) were considered by the victim has having been motivated by hate.

Although those two data sources paint a different picture, they are nevertheless complementary. Police data only consider crimes reported to them. In addition, the police must have a certain amount of evidence and procedures to be able to determine that a crime was hate motivated. Conversely, the information collected through the GSS reflects respondents' perceptions of having been victimized. Still, both data sources indicate that, amongst all motivations, hatred of disabled persons was one of the motivations least often mentioned. Moreover, the proportion of hate crimes reported by persons with disabilities in the GSS was not significantly different from that reported by persons without limitations.

Disability is also a discriminatory ground identified in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In this regard, the GSS indicates that 22% of persons with activity limitations believed they had been victims of discrimination over the previous 5 years. It was mainly when applying for jobs or promotions that persons with activity limitations believed they had experienced discrimination (11% compared to 7% of persons without limitations).

About 5% of persons with disabilities who said they had had contact with the police within the twelve months preceding the survey, and 5% of those who had had contact with the courts in a lifetime period, said they were discriminated against when dealing with the police or the courts. This compares to 2% of those without disabilities who had had contact with the police and 2% who had had contact with the courts over the same time period.

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Notes

1. Collective coverage of the UCR Survey 2.2 and supplementary surveys on hate crimes is estimated at 87% of Canada's population. For more details on hate crimes, see Dauvergne et al. (2006)
2. Use with caution, CV between 16.6 and 33.3. For more details, see the Methodology section of this report.