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In 2007, police in Canada identified 785 crimes that had been motivated by hatred toward a particular group, down from 892 in 2006. This decrease resulted in a 13% drop in the rate for this type of offence.
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The decrease was largely the result of fewer hate crimes reported by police in Montréal and Toronto. Combined, these two cities recorded 62 fewer incidents in 2007 than in 2006. As a group, small cities, towns and rural areas also reported a large drop, down by 60 incidents.
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The drops in Montréal and Toronto were somewhat offset by increases in Edmonton (+17) and Hamilton (+13). The number of hate crimes in any given area may be influenced by the presence or absence of specialized hate crime programs or initiatives which can vary between police services and from one year to the next.
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About half of all police-reported hate crimes were mischief offences, such as acts of graffiti on public property. Three in 10 hate crimes involved violence, usually minor assault or uttering threats, in which the victim suffered little to no physical harm.
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The vast majority of hate crimes resulted from one of three primary motivations. The most common of these was race or ethnicity, which accounted for about 6 in 10 incidents in 2007, followed by religion (24%) and sexual orientation (10%). These proportions were similar to those reported by police in 2006.
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Among racially-motivated hate crimes, Blacks continued to be targeted most often, although the number of such incidents declined from 238 in 2006 to 154 in 2007. There was also a notable decline in incidents against Arabs and West Asians.
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Police reported fewer incidents that targeted Jewish and Muslim faiths. Despite the decrease, incidents targeting the Jewish faith continued to account for about two-thirds of all hate crimes motivated by religion.
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