Proposed anti-hate legislation could help police in ‘cloudy areas’: analyst

CTV News’ public safety analyst Chris Lewis says the proposed bill would focus on places of worship, schools, and protests.

A proposed anti-hate legislation could help police during protesting amid rise in hate crimes in Canada, a public safety analyst says.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to introduce a bill this week that will prohibit people from restricting access to places of worship, religious or cultural buildings, and schools.

The bill is also slated to include three new hate-related Criminal Code offences: willful intimidation, obstruction, and standalone hate occurring near places of worship.

“It looks like (the bill) covers basically two areas,” public safety analyst Chris Lewis told CTV News Channel on Sunday.

“One is protests (...) which at times involves different cultures and different nationalities, etc., so there’s a couple of offences that have been added to that type of activity to help police deal with things in terms of people blocking pedestrians or cars from getting into certain places of worship or even schools (...) as well intimating people to not do certain things that they have a legal right to do.”

The proposed law doesn’t stop at protest-related offences. It also targets broader hate-motivated crimes.

“The second part of it is adding an offence to the Criminal Code, which if you committed assault or trespassing or some sort of threatening etc., if it’s based on hate, it adds a separate offence to that, so you’d be charged with two offences rather than the one,” Lewis said, adding the bill could be particularly beneficial for law enforcement.

“I don’t see this as having a negative impact on law enforcement,” he said. “It gives the police a little more bite when it comes to some of the cloudy areas during protests around what can be enforced and what can’t.”

However, Lewis says despite laws, policing protests will remain challenging for law enforcement.

“There’s always more protesters than there are police, and sometimes it’s really tough to act on any of these laws because they just don’t have the resources to continue to make arrests,” he said.

The bill is aimed at addressing the rise in hate crimes in Canada: police reported hate crimes increased from 1,817 cases in 2018 to 4,882 in 2024, according to Statistics Canada.

“We want to advance measures that will help address the scourge of hate crimes that we see in this country, specifically faith-based communities, but also hate against identifiable groups more broadly,” Justice Minister Sean Fraser told reporters at a caucus retreat in Edmonton on Thursday.

The ongoing Israel-Hamas war is one variable that has fueled an increase in hate crimes and protests in Canada, Lewis notes.

The connection between the rise in reported hate crimes has also been recognized by some law enforcement across Canada.

Toronto police reported an increase in antisemitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian occurrences, as well as large increase in hate crimes targeting other community groups following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel.

In 2022, there were 246 hate crime occurrences reported, up to 372 reported in 2023 and 443 reported in 2024, representing an 80 per cent increase.

Vancouver police also saw an increase in reports of anti-Semitism. They reported a 62 per cent increase in reports of anti-Semitism in 2023 compared to 2022.

Vancouver police have also investigated 50 criminal offences connected to the Israel-Hamas war, including assaults against police officers and cases of obstructing police.

Montreal police reported a significant increase in hate crimes or incidents as well: 212 hate crimes were reported in 2022, compared to 353 in 2023.

“We’ve seen a lot (of protests), particularly since the Hamas attack on Israel,” Lewis said.

“It’s such a simmering issue, the many, many years it’s been going on and it’s overwhelmed police (...) It’s been difficult for the police to keep up with the increase.”