The Calgary Police Service (CPS) is hoping more "hate-motivated crimes and incidents" will start to be reported on — and they're launching a portion of their website dedicated encouraging people to do so.They state in a clip for the launch that one in three Albertans have experienced a hate crime or incident.With such a high statistic, one has to wonder: what is considered a hate crime or incident?According to the new addition to the CPS website, a "hate crime" is a crime motivated by hate..But in all seriousness, they expand to classify the act as "recognizable crimes, like assault, theft, or vandalism, where the offender’s actions were motivated by hate, bias, or prejudice towards one or more of the victim’s personal characteristics."As for hate incidents considered non-criminal, this is when a person displays "their hate or bias towards a person or group identifiable by their personal characteristics (such as race, ethnicity, country of origin, sexuality, religion, etc.), but the act does not meet the threshold of a criminal offence."CPS deems hate crimes as being underreported due to "mistrust in police, fear of retaliation, language or cultural barriers, or a perception of the importance of the incident."In the past two years, there has actually been an increase in hate crimes reported — as recorded on the CPS' own website. .In 2024, there were 116 reported hate crimes received by CPS, a 1.7% increase from 2023.In 2025 there were 152 reported hate crimes — CPS claims this is a 25% increase compared to the five year average of hate crimes in the city. CPS claimed in their 2025 report, race/ethnicity and religion were the most frequent motivations for the crimes.Under the CPS X post, the one and only commenter, Alberta AF, asks a pertinent question for deciding what characterizes a hate crime: "Who decides what is hate?".Stop Hate Alberta, a non-profit which advocates for the reporting of hate crimes — which received over $200,000 in federal money to be dispersed between 2026 and 2029 — provides a rubric to assess whether an act was motivated by hate and considered a hate crime.First, they ask the individual how they "self-identify," and then ask what the person believes they were targeted for in the incident, including reasons like "race, national origin, ethnic origin, etc."They ask whether the person considered the crime to be a "derogatory slur, defacement, hateful/provocative material/symbol, etc."The Western Standard also enquired to CPS regarding their consideration of a hate crime versus a hate incident (which is non criminal), and why they decided to launch the feature on their website, but did not receive an answer by the time this article was published. .CPS does however, highlight "many citizens might not agree with the viewpoints of certain groups who openly gather to voice their ideas."It claims Canadians still have fundamental rights, including, "Freedom of conscience and religion, Freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press, Freedom of peaceful assembly, and Freedom of association."
