China News Service, July 28. According to a comprehensive report by the Canadian "Sing Tao Daily", a latest crime rate data from Statistics Canada shows that Canada's crime rate has declined in 2020, which is the first time that the crime rate in Canada has appeared in five years. Increasing trend, but hate crimes committed against race have soared. The victims usually occur among Chinese, Korean and Southeast Asian nationals.
Some sociology professors believe that because the new crown pneumonia epidemic reduces national travel opportunities, racist sentiment is spread through the Internet, and social media platforms do not filter racist speech in time, thus allowing racism to spread in society.
The latest data from the Bureau of Statistics found that the Canadian police reported an 8% reduction in crimes in 2020, but a 37% increase in hate crimes compared to 2019.
Researchers said that Canada reported 2,669 hate crimes in 2020, a sharp increase from 1,951 in 2019. Among them, the number of hate crimes against race has almost doubled, which is the largest number of hate crimes since 2009. Of the year.
The data on hate crimes in 2020 shows that Ontario has had 321 hate crimes in 2020, which is the province with the most hate crimes in Canada. 196 cases in British Columbia are ranked second, and the third-ranked province of Alberta is also in 105 cases occurred in the same year.
Among the Canadian hate crime cases, hate crimes against African-American residents increased by 92% to a total of 318; hate crimes against East Asian residents soared by 301%, with a total of 202 reported, while hatred against Aboriginal and South Asian residents Crimes increased by 152% and 47%, respectively, with approximately 40 cases each of the two ethnic groups.
The report also pointed out that the risk of ethnic minorities being harassed or attacked by racism in Canada is three times that of other nationals. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Canadians of Chinese, Korean and Southeast Asian descent have become targets of racist attacks.
Celestini, a professor at the University of Waterloo, said that because misinformation about the origin of the new crown virus is spreading in society, conspiracy theories about the virus are spreading on online platforms, and racist sentiments are spreading in the online world, which triggers extreme social behavior.
Celestini said: “When people are faced with disasters or fears, they can’t find a solution. They can only shirk the responsibility on others and vent, which has caused many Asians to become scapegoats during the epidemic. Social platforms have a responsibility. Filter and prevent the spread of hate speech, otherwise more hate speech and extreme behavior will continue to spread."
Due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Canadian provinces have implemented strict public health measures, such as stay-at-home orders and isolation orders, to reduce the crime rate in the community. However, researchers have also found that people stay at home for a long time and use the Internet frequently, leading to an increase in the number of Internet-related crimes. Domestic violence has also become a focus of attention during the epidemic.