Skip to main content

Community organization releases data on police-reported hate crimes and launches public awareness campaign.

The Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) announces the publication of the report for its Hate Crime Reporting Project (HCRP). The report details the project’s overview, methodology, findings, and recommendations for police service. CASSA thanks contributing community members, collaborating partners and agencies, the project’s advisory board, and the Anti-Hate Leaders Group, for providing crucial support, input, and feedback. For the full report, click here

“National data shows an increase of over 70% of hate-motivated crimes and incidents reported to Canadian police in the last two years. Still, over 90% of hate activity and incidents are unreported for reasons including fear of the police, distrust in law enforcement and judicial systems, dismissal by police; as well as other barriers to reporting including language, cultural, socioeconomic, and accessibility barriers” said Samya Hasan, Executive Director of CASSA. This project aimed to explore the differences in perceptions of what hate-motivated crimes and incidents are between the police and communities, the best ways to report them, and how to approach investigations. 

CASSA partnered with the Toronto Police Service, Peel Regional Police, York Regional Police, and Ottawa Police Service over the course of two years. With these partners, CASSA hoped to establish a consistent hate-motivated crime reporting approach across the four jurisdictions to boost reporting rates, as well as increase community awareness for identifying hate-motivated crimes and hate incidents and safe methods of reporting them. In acknowledgment of available resources, our hope is that the project’s recommendations, and collaborations established as part of the project, set the tone for future work in our communities in combatting and reporting hate speech, hate-motivated crimes, and hate incidents. This project was funded by the Safer and Vital Communities Grant from the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General.  

We will continue to advocate for and work with communities, other community organizations, policymakers, and law enforcement to ensure the most vulnerable people are protected and aware of available resources to report hate activity and receive recourse.

For comments, please contact:

Samya Hasan, Council of Agencies Serving South Asians

samya@cassa.on.ca | 416-932-1359