VPD data sheds more light on hate crimes in Vancouver

Data released through a Freedom of Information request is providing greater insight into hate crimes in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Police Department data is from December 2022 to December 2023 and shows an increase in hate-related incidents for a number of racial and ethnic groups.

During that time period, antisemitism increased 62 per cent, hate incidents directed at Black people rose 23 per cent, and those targeting Indigenous people increased 67 per cent.

Regional Chief Terry Teegee with the B.C. Assembly of First Nations called the rise concerning.

“It just speaks to the general issue that there is a problem of racism in this country,” he said.

There was also an increase of 83 per cent in hate incidents targeting those who are trans, non-binary, agender or intersex. Hate incidents for Arab and West Asian people increased by 100 per cent, while Muslims saw a 25 per cent increase.

During a news conference in January, the VPD did not share exact numbers of anti-Muslim or West-Asian-directed hate crimes, but stated these events do “absolutely” happen. 

'Information that they're leaving out'

The FOI was filed in May by Tri-Cities resident Anthony, who asked CTV News not to use his last name due to safety concerns.

He said he filed the FOI because he noticed the VPD primarily releasing news releases related to a rise in antisemitism, and wanted to see whether other ethnic and racial groups were experiencing similar trends.

“I was like, ‘OK, well, let's see the rest of the data, because I feel that there's other pieces of information that they're leaving out,’” he said.

Anthony said he wasn’t surprised by the findings, but added they left him questioning why the VPD only released certain data.

“They should have, or they ought to, inform the public about all of it across the board, equally.”

CTV News asked the VPD for comment but did not receive a response.

As per the FOI, the civilian analyst who responded to the request said: “Hate crimes files are reviewed by hate crimes investigators and a hate crimes team. While many files are reviewed, not all files are coded as being motivated by hate, bias or prejudice. Reviews are subjective and therefore statistics can be impacted by a subjective review.”

The analyst added that hate crimes data includes hate incidents, hate crimes and hate-motivated crimes.

“This means that data includes hate incidents, such as racial slurs, hate crimes, such as Criminal Code offences linked to hate such as 'willful promotion of hate' and 'willful incitement of hatred,' as well as hate-motivated crimes, such as an assault that is proven to motivated by hate. With this in mind, events can fall within a wide range of seriousness,” the analyst said.

'Under-reported'

According to the VPD’s data, despite a 19 per cent decrease in reported hate incidents against East and Southeast Asian people – in 2023, the force recorded 46 such incidents.

Vivian Nguyen, a member of The Vietnamese Professionals Association of B.C., said the actual numbers are likely higher.

“I don’t think the data is super accurate, just knowing that so many police departments don’t even provide accessible ways to report hate crimes,” Nguyen said. “I think a lot of hate crimes are still under-reported.”

Nguyen is part of a project called Fix Police Reporting that advocates for greater accessibility to report hate crimes. She said she’d like to see law enforcement be more proactive in releasing this data.

“I think it gives everybody a better picture of how our community and our society is improving in terms of how the government supports us and provides resources for us to be able to actually report those crimes and feel heard and seen in those ways,” she said.

Kasari Govender, B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner, said it’s important to provide the full scope of information when sharing data on hate-related incidents.

“We need to have a complete picture of what it looks like in the province to really understand how to resolve it,” Govender said.