Police say an alarming rise in attacks on racialized Albertans in Edmonton has left members of marginalized communities afraid to leave their homes and live their lives as they wish.
“We have communities that live in fear,” said Sgt. Gary Willits, a spokesman for the Edmonton Police Service Violent Extremism and Hate Crimes Unit, said Wednesday.
The numbers are increasing at “an alarming rate,” he said.
“These are people who don’t attend their places of worship, who don’t wear their religious dress, people who don’t leave their homes. We are trying to increase the feeling of security. We need to sensitize our communities.”
Sergeant Willits discussed the rise in hate crimes at a news conference about four people who have been charged with separate attacks on black people and other colored Albertans.
Police said a 34-year-old man faces two counts of assault after a South Asian man wearing a turban was followed, spat on, threatened and racially slurred at in February.
A 17-year-old also faces two counts of assault after a Black worker and a Southeast Asian worker were spat on and racially abused at a restaurant drive-thru in March.
A 39-year-old man, who has since died, was facing charges after a gun was pointed at a black woman and a white man who were walking with their son in a stroller in April.
And a 46-year-old man is charged with multiple crimes after three attacks on black men last month.
Police said in a statement that 23 hate crimes were reported between January and March. Last year, police investigated 13 hate crimes in that same time period.
Sergeant Willits said police are advising judges to consider a section of the Penal Code that calls for higher sentences if all four defendants are convicted and if they were motivated by hate.
Police are providing people who were attacked with trauma-informed support, he said. Investigators are looking into the suspects’ ideologies and whether they are involved in any groups, she added.
During previous hate crime investigations, Sgt. Willits said some attackers bluntly expressed their racist views toward particular groups, while others said they had no recollection of the attack due to a mental health issue.
It’s not clear why attacks on people of color are increasing, he said.
“It’s the million dollar question… I can say that the vast majority of our files deal with dependency problems, mental health. We see them as contributing factors.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and a general rise in intolerance around the world could be behind the rise in attacks, said Sgt. Willits added.
“We have several people injured and we are trying to find a solution. How can we get them to contribute back to society?”
This story was produced with the financial assistance of Meta and the Canadian Press News Fellowship.
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