Hate crime: a crime motivated by hatred. Hate-motivated crimes are recognizable crimes, like assault, theft, or vandalism, where the offender’s actions were motivated by hate, bias, or prejudice towards one or more of the victim’s personal characteristics.

Hate incident: an occurrence where a person displays their hate or bias towards a person or group identifiable by their personal characteristic (such as race, ethnicity, country of origin, sexuality, religion, etc.), but the act does not meet the threshold of a criminal offence. This is also referred to as an “incident motivated by hate.”

The Criminal Code of Canada contains specific sections and subsections covering offences related to hate propaganda, including public incitement of hatred, willful promotion of hatred, advocating genocide, hate propaganda, willful promotion of antisemitism, and hate-motivated mischief against certain types of property.

Hate-motivated incidents are often underreported for a variety of reasons, including fear or mistrust of police, fear of retaliation, language or cultural barriers, or a perception of the importance of the incident.

If you are a victim of a hate-motivated crime, or have witnessed a hate-motivated crime, please report it to police. Reporting and investigation of possible hate-motivated crimes and incidents is crucial for community safety and to affirm that hate will not be tolerated in Calgary communities.

Be an active witness: Silence or non-action are often perceived as condoning acts of hate or discrimination. When you observe a hate or bias incident or crime, if it is safe to do so, record pictures or video of the event with your cellphone. Take notes of when it occurred (date and time), and what exactly was said and done; describe the offenders (age, height, weight, clothing worn, distinguishing features such as tattoos) and provide the information to police.

If you're witnessing a crime in progress or are involved in an emergency, call 911.

If you would like to report a crime but are not presently in danger, call the non-emergency line at 403-266-1234.

We strongly encourage the public to report hate incidents through our online reporting system or by calling the non-emergency line at 403-266-1234. This ensures all hate-motivated crimes and incidents are properly captured and routed to the Hate Crime Prevention Team for review and triage.

Hate incidents can also be reported to:

• Alberta Human Rights Commission – Confidential Inquiry Line: 403-297-6571
• The Alberta Hate Crime Committee – visit #STOPHATEAB

Non-criminal activities

Although many citizens might not agree with the viewpoints of certain groups who openly gather to voice their ideas, Canada is a free and democratic society that provides fundamental freedoms to all its citizens.

The Calgary Police Service must balance the requirement to enforce Canadian laws with the duty to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Canadians. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

• Freedom of conscience and religion
• Freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press
• Freedom of peaceful assembly
• Freedom of association

The Charter states that individuals have the freedom to their own thoughts, beliefs, and opinions and can express those openly. Police would intervene only when the law is broken.