Hate and bias crimes in Alberta will continue to go largely unreported if the province doesn’t quickly create a strategy to protect people against these types of crimes and urge them to come forward when they are victimized, says a report released this month.

The report, written by former Calgary cop Cam Stewart, says aboriginals in particular tend not to report hate crimes because of “fear of police and fear of being re-victimized by the justice system.” Aboriginals interviewed for the project also felt that complaints about hate crimes against aboriginals are often not taken seriously.

“As much as you think you’ve heard it all, there are some simply shocking [hate incidents] where you’re like, ‘I can’t believe that would still happen’ — especially in a city such as Calgary,” says Christy Morgan with the Calgary Urban Aboriginal Initiative (CUAI). Morgan says many aboriginals don’t come forward after a hate incident or crime because it can seem too daunting and pointless. “Most people figure, ‘What’s the point of… putting myself through that when I feel like I may not be supported?’”

Canada’s Criminal Code defines a hate crime as the advocating of genocide, or the public incitation or promotion of hatred against a person or group based on their race, sex, colour, sexual orientation, etc. Hate incidents are defined in Stewart’s report as “discriminatory actions including name calling, racial slurs or distributing material which promotes prejudices or hatred.” The report says the province’s Solicitor General and Public Security department should create a hate crime team that would standardize the way Alberta police forces and other groups deal with hate crimes and incidents.

Currently, different police services in the province respond to hate and bias crimes in different ways. “Co-ordinating communication across police services is important,” says Murray Stooke, the Calgary Police Service’s (CPS) deputy chief. “We can do better.” The CPS has a six-person unit that handles hate crime, but the RCMP — which handles policing for rural and small-town communities — has only one officer in Alberta “to address all diversity and hate crime needs,” according to the report.

Despite the report’s urgency, the solicitor general has no plans to create a hate crime team because the department believes the individual police services are doing enough. “We feel those units are working fine at the moment, so that’s part of the reason we don’t have a plan to establish an integrated unit,” says Tim Chander, a spokesperson for the solicitor general.

As part of Stewart’s report, almost 300 people were surveyed online. The survey results show that hate crimes and incidents in Alberta are usually perpetrated by male strangers — a reality Calgary resident Bob Arbuthnott has experienced firsthand. As a gay man, he’s been verbally degraded and physically threatened by strangers because of his sexual orientation. “They’ve always surprised me and taken me aback,” says Arbuthnott of the incidents, adding that they affect everything from his relationships with his partner and employer to “how I walk home at night.”

Coming forward after a hate incident, he says, takes courage. “It’s still nerve-wracking to put yourself out to do that,” says Arbuthnott, who is the civilian chair of the CPS’s sexuality and gender diversity advisory committee. “So it’s good to see that it’s becoming more publicly acceptable.”

Diane Colley-Urquhart, a Calgary alderman and a commissioner with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, says that while it’s important for people to contact police after a hate crime, it’s also important that people file complaints with the commission. Over the last three years, the commission has received only 17 complaints, according to Stewart’s report. “If we don’t have people filing these complaints formally, then we cannot demonstrate the extent to which we have a problem,” says Colley-Urquhart.

Stewart’s report recommends that the province develop an aggressive public relations campaign on hate and bias crimes, as well as a separate program for aboriginal communities. Morgan says CUAI is also trying to connect people who have experienced hate crimes and incidents with an aboriginal resource person who can listen to victims’ stories and give advice on how they should respond. “They perhaps just need that extra support of saying, ‘You know what? I heard your story. You need to go forward, and I’ll support you,’” says Morgan. “They just want someone to hear them and not judge them on it.”