Alberta updates Crown prosecutor's manual to go after hate crimes
CBC
Alberta is taking steps to crack down on hate crime by changing the guidelines used by Crown prosecutors.
Activists and experts commend the development but also advocate for a more comprehensive approach to combating hate.
Prosecutors will now be explicitly directed that it would be in the "general public interest" to prosecute a crime that was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on the victim's ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation, among other markers of identity.
The prosecutor's manual is a document that provides guidance and instructions to prosecutors. Some of these instructions are procedural, whereas others are more general about how to utilize discretion and what things to take into consideration.
In Canadian criminal law, hate crimes are not well-defined. There are only two sections in the Criminal Code that explicitly refer to hate — advocating genocide and public incitement of hatred against an identifiable group.
Other crimes motivated by hate are prosecuted using other sections of the Criminal Code, like assaults or acts of mischief. If an offence was motivated by hate or prejudice, it is considered an aggravating factor.
From 2019 to 2020, the rate of hate crime per 100,000 population in Alberta rose by 39 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.
Other changes to the manual are related to prosecutions of vulnerable persons, including those who live in rural areas, and prosecutions of repeat offenders.
In a statement last week, Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro said that the updated manual will better support prosecutors' decision-making, including to help them "better protect victims of sexual and domestic violence and persons who live in rural and remote communities, and to prosecute those who commit hate-motivated offences and repeat offenders."
Dallas Sopko, president of the Alberta Crown Attorneys' Association, views the update positively.
"It's important that these types of offenses are prosecuted."
Sopko noted the manual's update does not change how cases are prosecuted nor the law itself.
"It's the government's instruction to prosecutors about how to do their job, essentially."
Stephen Camp, a member of the Alberta Hate Crimes Committee and a retired Edmonton police officer, says that the update will remove subjectivity on whether to prosecute hate-motivated offences.