Hate crimes in Ottawa triple the national average: report

Ottawa's rate of reported hate crimes was more than three times higher than the national average in 2010, according to a new Statistics Canada report.

The report included all police-reported criminal incidents that were determined to be motivated by hate toward an identifiable group. As in previous years, the most common type of hate crime was mischief, representing 56 per cent of all incidents. This often includes acts of vandalism.

The report indicates that the national average of reported hate crimes is 4.1 in 100,000. This marks a decreased by 18 per cent from 2009 to 2010. Ottawa’s rate, 14 per 100,000 crimes, stayed about the same.

One factor for Ottawa's higher rate could be that the city has its own hate crime unit, said Staff Sgt. John Medeiros, who leads the Diversity and Race Relations Section of the Ottawa Police,

The hate crimes unit has been busy engaging with community members, as well as services such as OC Transpo and schools in Ottawa to educate them about how to identify hate crimes.