Education, victim reporting needed as hate crime law in Canada becomes more complex, presenters tell Charlottetown

Islanders have a lot to learn about hate crimes in Canadian law.

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation held a public engagement session on Oct. 14 at the Immigration and Refugee Services Association of P.E.I. office.

Led by Craig Upshaw, a consultant and contractor with the foundation and former Halifax police officer, and Const. Fatbardh Maliqi, the Charlottetown police hate crime co-ordinator, the meeting provided detailed information about what hate crimes are, how the law works in Canada and support available to victims.

Over the summer, the federal government passed Bill C-9, which added new standalone hate crime charges to the Criminal Code of Canada. That means police can charge someone for a crime motivated by hate when they make the arrest. Before, the law only allowed adding a hate motivation during sentencing at the court level.

Upshaw and Maliqi went over about 10 distinct charges related to hate crimes, including intimidation, mischief, incitement to genocide and more. It also includes the spreading of hate through various media such as flyers, social media and other publications.

Speaking after the presentation, Upshaw and Maliqi said the public understanding of this is not strong. But ignorance is not a valid defence, Maliqi said.

“That’s what we’re leaning towards. We want to make sure we do education … so people know, hey that’s not acceptable. If you say this, there’s consequences.”

Police, too, need more education on why hate crime enforcement and tracking is so important, Upshaw said, noting every cop is different and some are more resistant to dealing with the feelings side of policing.

Much of the presentation focused on encouraging hate crime reporting from victims. Key to this is building trust among the community, especially in marginalized demographics, so they will come forward. Upshaw referred to this work as the “10-minute hot dog” — taking a few minutes to show up at a community barbecue and become a face people recognize. Police cannot just come around when things are bad, Upshaw said.

“When I left, the first thing they said was, ‘Upshaw was here today. Upshaw was here the other day,’” he said.

“This is how we start building relationships. They’ve got to see us so they get used to us, and then they’ll talk to us. And then we start building things.”

As an increase in reporting happens, there will be a notable change in hate crime statistics. But that doesn’t necessarily mean a rise in hate crimes or hate incidents, Upshaw said. It may simply mean the issue is getting the attention and tracking it deserves.

The Guardian has seen this change unfold over 2026. In January, Charlottetown police told The Guardian there had only been a handful of reported hate-related incidents over the previous two years — four in 2024 and one in 2025.

As of the September 2026 statistics, there have been 12 incidents reported in 2026. The police made hate crimes a distinct stat within monthly incident statistics starting in January 2026.

The presentation broke down a formula for hate crimes, compared to regular crimes and hate incidents:
• If a crime is committed with no hate motivation, it is just a regular crime.
• If something happens that is motivated by hate, but there is no crime involved, it is a hate incident.
• If someone commits a crime and there is proof it is motivated by hate, it is a hate crime.

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Logan MacLean is a municipal reporter for The Guardian in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached at lmaclean@postmedia.com and followed on X @loganmaclean94.