Hate incidents jump nearly 24% in Ottawa, police say

Hate-motivated incidents in Ottawa have jumped nearly 24 per cent in the first half of 2023 compared to the same time last year, according to police.

There were 221 such incidents reported to police between Jan. 1 and June 30this year, compared to 179 by the sametime in 2022, Ottawa police said in a media release issued Friday.

Among this year's cases, 158 have been deemed criminaland 63 have been deemed hate-motivated but not criminal. Charges have been laid against 23 people, including one charge of public incitement of hatred, policesaid.

So far in 2023, the most affected residentsareJewish (36 incidents), LGBTQ (32 incidents) and Black (30 incidents), followed by Chinese (eightincidents) and Muslim (seven incidents), police said.

The number of incidents against theLGBTQ community and Muslims doubled from the same period in 2022.

The alleged crimes include mischief to property, uttering threats, assaults, criminal stalking and harassment, and mischief to cultural property.

In all of 2021 there were 340 reports filed, and in 2022 a total of 377 reports were filed, police said.

"The statistics are sobering because we know that they only tell part of the story,"policeChief Eric Stubbs is quoted as saying in Friday'snews release.

"So often these types of incidents go unreported and we know that this data only provides a glimpse of what people are experiencing out in the community."