Hate-motivated crimes in Canada are most commonly related to race or ethnicity, according to a new study released Monday.
In the total of 892 hate-motivated crimes in 2006, 60 percent, or about 502 crimes, were motivated by race or ethnicity, government agency Statistics Canada said.
Among these, half were targeted at blacks, 13 percent at South Asians and 12 percent at Arabs or West Asians.
Incidents motivated by race or ethnicity were the most common type of hate crimes in the country's nine largest metropolitan areas, except capital city Ottawa, where religion-based hate crimes occurred most often, the study shows.
Besides race or ethnicity, another quarter of hate crimes were motivated by religion and one in 10 by sexual orientation.
But hate crimes are not rampant in Canada, accounting for less than 1 percent of all criminal incidents in 2006.
Half of all hate-motivated crimes were property-related offenses, usually mischief, while a third were violent offenses such as assault, the study says.
Source:Xinhua
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