More and more hate crimes are being reported across the country, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

In 2009, the number of hate crime reported in Canada went up by 42%, and police are optimistic. ”It’s not that the hate crimes are actually increasing,” explained Ken Smith from the Edmonton police department’s hate crimes unit. “People are feeling more comfortable reporting it.”

Indeed, hate crimes have been historically under-reported. According to a Statistics Canada survey from 2004, 60% of hate crime victims claimed that they didn’t bother reporting the incidents to the police. A change in this number is welcome news because it allows for more opportunities to catch the people who commit these crimes. This is particularly true with respect to GLBT victims, who are finally feeling safe enough to out themselves to the police and more confident that the police will help them.

GLBT victims, incidentally, need to report these incidents the most. The severest hate crimes—violent assaults—were committed against members of the GLBT community more often than any other identifiable minority, a disturbing trend.

Obviously there’s a lot of work to be done to improve things, but the most important step—reporting hate crimes when they happen—is already happening. So, while I’d be most happy if hate crimes stopped altogether as of last night (one can hope, right?), I take the latest statistics as an encouraging move toward a safer life for everyone.

• Increase in Edmonton hate crimes due to more frequent reporting, police say [Edmonton Journal]

Hundreds of dollars worth of gay-themed library books that were found soaked in urine at Harvard is no longer being treated as a hate crime, according to university investigators.

The 36 books, which covered GLBT topics ranging from coming out to equal marriage rights, were found by a library staff member in late November. Urine had been poured over each of the books, ruining them completely. An almost empty bottle (the smoking gun, so to speak) was found nearby.

The Harvard University Police Department reacted quickly, launching an investigation. Their findings: The damage was an accident, caused by a library staff member who inadvertently tipped over a bottle of urine that was sitting on the bookshelf. With the conclusion of their investigation, the incident is no longer being considered an act of vandalism or a hate crime.

Ah. Case closed, then. Good work.

A mishap like this was probably inevitable, actually, considering how libraries always store their bookshelf urine in inordinately tall bottles with rounded bottoms. A bump is all it takes.

I’m not even sure why they store that stuff there in the first place, come to think of it.

• Damaged LGBT Books in Lamont Not Result of Hate Crime, Dean Says [The Harvard Crimson]

Shaun Woodward, a 37 year old construction worker, was in a Vancouver gay pub last March when he was offered a beer by Richard Dowrey, a 62 year old gay man out celebrating his retirement. Woodward, who is straight, was angered by the gesture, sucker punching the retiree amidst a stream of homophobic slurs. Dowrey suffered permanent brain damage, leaving him with severe memory problems. He will require assisted living for the rest of his life.

Robin Perelle from Xtra Vancouver interviewed Dowrey for an article published late last week. The story is heartbreaking. In Perelle’s words:

I visited Dowrey at his care home in Langley the day before his attacker’s sentencing hearing. Dowrey can’t remember the attack. He can’t remember his friends at The Fountainhead [Pub]. He can’t remember his life.

I ask him how old he is; “60-something,” he tells me, unable to be more precise. “I don’t remember a thing from the 40s and 50s,” he adds. I ask him why. “I don’t know,” he replies, watching me.

[...]

“I hope I’ll get better one of these days,” he says, pointing at himself. “I hope so.” “I just have to get this leg fixed,” he says.

Woodward claimed the attack was self defense because the 62 year old had made “unwanted sexual advances.” Provincial Court Judge Jocelyn Palmer dismissed Woodward’s gay panic defense outright, calling the gay-bashing an “unprovoked attack, driven by virulent homophobia,” delivering a six-year prison sentence.

Judge Palmer’s choice of words, “virulent,” is fitting. Homophobic sentiment spreads and strengthens itself, and silence does nothing to stop it. Homophobia must be challenged wherever it is encountered, well before it escalates to this level of violence and destroys lives.

• Man ‘driven by virulent homophobia’ sentenced to 6 years for attack on gay man [Vancouver Sun]
• Unrecognizable [Xtra Vancouver]

A Catholic bishop from Prince Edward Island has publicly condemned a violent crime that left a gay couple homeless last month. The couple’s home was burned down in late October in what evidence suggests to be a homophobic hate crime.

In a rare denunciation, bishop Richard Grecco had some harsh words for religiously-motivated hate crimes. “Hatred,” he said, “is a sin and any action that comes out of hatred is not only a sin, but in this case a crime and it must be denounced by all churches.” He continued further, “anybody that claims to perpetrate these kinds of hate crimes in the name of religion—what they’re doing is abusing and misusing religion and doing it harm.”

Shockingly well put from a Catholic bishop; although, in the interest of disclosure, I can’t be fully certain that “Catholic” wasn’t a typo. We could, in fact, be speaking of a bishop from a more progressive church who cares for an excessive quantity of feline companions—a cataholic.

Either way, drawing the attention of religious moderates to the atrocities being committed against the GLBT community is exactly what needs to be done, so—if this guy doesn’t, in fact, just have a lot of cats—I’m pleasantly surprised that the Catholic church has actually come out against this crime so publicly.

Well, maybe pleasantly is too strong a qualifier.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The Catholic church is one of the greatest contributers to an atmosphere in which homophobia thrives. Doomsday rhetoric about how we gays are destroying families, society, probably Earth, and then recruiting children to an eternity of hellfire necessarily leads to these kinds of violent reactions in the first place. The bishop’s condemnation, while welcome, is a little like a guillotine pullstring manufacturer strongly condemning the atrocious use of guillotines.

One particularly telling phrase shows that Grecco still doesn’t get it. Speaking to the media, he said that parishioners should still love those with lifestyles they disagree with. The thing is, sexual orientation is a trait, not a choice, and is no more a lifestyle than the left-handed lifestyle or the brunette lifestyle. When the church defines all natural expressions of an innate identity as a sin and then decries that sin as being responsible for all sorts of impossible consequences, they’re in no position to objectively condemn homophobic violence. Not yet, anyway. They need to reform their attitudes first and resolve their ancient doctrine with modern knowledge of reality. Until then, I’m afraid no amount of kitten foster care will change that.

• P.E.I. bishop condemns alleged hate crime [CBC News]

Neighbours suspect the attack was a hate crime, as the gay couple’s mailbox had been set on fire a week earlier and the couple had previously complained about an anonymous harasser. Police have confirmed that they are treating the fire as arson, but haven’t found any suspects.

The community reaction to the crime has been swift and compassionate, but the couple, who has not been identified by the media, is understandably terrified. They asked a neighbour to accompany them when returning to the site of the fire to search for belongings, since they were too scared to go by themselves.

Here’s hoping the suspects are found. There is absolutely no room for this sort of hateful violence in Canada. In the meantime, anyone with information about the attacks is asked to contact the Kings District RCMP.

Special thanks to Slap reader Matthew, and everyone else who sent in this story.

• Co-ordinator says fire highlights homophobia on PEI [The Guardian]
• P.E.I. town fears fire was hate crime [CBC News]

A gay-bashing victim who was assaulted in Vancouver earlier this month is very unhappy with the response he received from the police.

Thomas Pope says he was waiting for his friends outside a McDonalds when two men started taunting him with homophobic slurs. When his friends finally stepped outside, the two men turned their taunts to one of them as well, eventually escalating to violence. Thomas was punched several times in the face, and his friend, Jacob Pyne, had a tooth knocked out. Their female friend, Sara, wasn’t targetted. “They said that they had no problem with her because she’s a girl,” Thomas told the press, “they had a problem with [Jacob and me] because we’re “faggots.”‘

The police were called and arrived quickly, but that’s where things got weird. “She was swearing at us and yelling at us, the police officer,” Thomas told the press. “She said it was just a he-said-she-said incident and wouldn’t take my statement; that they were off the clock and we were lucky they even responded to the call.”

It took the involvement of Spencer Chandra Herbert, a Vancouver MLA who was concerned about this story, to get the police’s attention. An internal investigation which includes video surveillance is now underway.

It’s supremely disappointing that the police allegedly behaved in this manner, because reporting homophobic attacks is exactly what needs to be done as soon as something like this happens. Here’s hoping this ends up being resolved quickly!

• Police belligerent and unprofessional at gaybashing [Xtra West]
• Police conduct questioned in alleged gay-bashing [Toronto SUN]