Tuesday, June 15, 2010
For years, we’ve been told by Canadians that our neighbor to the north is far and away more tolerant and accepting of gay and lesbian people. Canadians love to point to the legalization of gay marriage in Canada as proof of their superiority. But, violent crime is on the increase across Canada, with gay men as the victims of many of the most vicious attacks.
According to the Toronto Star:
Police services are reporting a big jump in hate crimes, and they say gay men are being targeted more often and in the most violent incidents.
But Statistics Canada says the numbers could be more a result of better reporting than of increased violence.
The agency said police logged 1,036 hate crimes in 2008, up 35 per cent from 2007.
Just over half (55 per cent) were motivated by race or ethnicity, 26 per cent by religion and 16 per cent by sexual orientation.
The agency says all three major categories of hate crime increased in 2008, but the largest increase was among crimes motivated by sexual orientation, which more than doubled from 2007 to 2008.
Hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were also the most violent: 75 per cent were violent compared with 38 per cent of racially-motivated incidents and 25 per cent of religiously motivated incidents.
Among violent incidents motivated by sexual orientation, 85 per cent of the victims were male.
Helen Kennedy, executive director of EGALE, echoed that sentiment.
”We know that close to 75 per cent of these crimes go unreported,” she said.
From the Left 
This is very surprising. I have read many posts from Canadians claiming their country is a gay nirvana and the US could learn a few things about justice and fairness in its treatment of gay people. I guess the Canadians aren’t so perfect after all?
I hope these numbers are just better reporting and not a genuine increase in violence against gays and lesbians. But in fairness, Canada isn’t perfect. One reason I refuse to visit is the annual seal slaughter the government still allows. This is inhumane.
Gay Canucks should be armed.
Trust me boys. Once the word gets out that gays are armed and ready to play ball, the cowards will retreat.
It’s been my experience that Canadians are for the most part, tolerant and accepting of gay people and less driven by religious ideology than are many Americans.
But no place is perfect.
Take KD Lang. The woman should be the pride of Canada. A great talent with a beautiful voice. But even Lang said in an interview how after she became famous, she returned to Saskatchewan for some award and saw street signs desecrated with homophobic smears targeting her arrival.
Obviously Canada is not ‘perfect’. When you are made up of different people with different beliefs, ‘perfect’ isn’t possible. It is subjective. I am a liberal gay male living in Canada. With my outlook and belief system being what it is (obviously gay equal rights being high on the list), in my opinion, Canada is much closer to ‘perfect’ than the US. From a gay-rights standpoint, this is undeniable. Yes, unfortunately, there is an increase in reported hate crimes, but our society in general is far, far more accepting of gays than American society. You just have to read up on the history. Conservative Canadians are often more along the lines of American centrists, than American conservatives. Luckily we don’t have a Canadian version Fox news constantly stoking the fear fires.
Also, one should not that a high number of these hate crimes are committed by immigrant teens or teens whose parent are immigrants from countries where homosexuality is either abhorrent or never discussed. Over time, most of these families come to learn and accept that being gay is considered evil here and that it is perfectly okay. Usually by the second generation, as they are raised in our society. And for the record, I live in a highly multicultural city and 99% of the ‘ethnic Canadians’ I know are very open minded and just awesome people. They fully understand Canadian societal values.