Police launch initiative to report homophobic violence
"We've known that hate crimes based on sexual orientation go unreported for some time," said Det. Const. Thomas Decker, the LGBT Liaison Officer for the Toronto Police Service. "One source of data, the Egale Canada school survey, demonstrated that the situation in Canadian schools was worse than we thought it to be and it seems that some of our educational settings are hotbeds for sexual orientation motivated harassment."
The campaign is targeting people aged 13 to 25 with a focus on improving the situation that LGTBQ people face in Toronto's schools and helping to build better relationships between affected communities and the police.
"Sexual orientation slurs are out there, kids as young as eight and nine calling each other 'fag' or 'dyke', so a young member of the LGTBQ may not report a crime because they've been forced to feel ashamed of who they are, or are still struggling with who they are and don't feel comfortable talking to the police," said Decker.
The Toronto Police Services 2007 Annual Hate/Bias Crime Statistical Report detailed 42 hate crime charges laid where the basis of the crime was the sexual orientation of the victim.
An information graphic found in the 2007 TPS report details the distribution of hate crimes throughout the city shows that while only a handful of offenses took place in Parkdale, that information could be skewed due to the low rate of such crimes being reported to police.
Decker said sexually orientated hate crimes are under-reported for various reasons.
"Some crimes go unreported because the victim may feel that the person who's supposed to help them is going to end up re-victimizing them," said Decker. "But a vast majority of our officers are well trained and sensitive to the issues of these communities and with this new campaign we hope to further the education of our members."
Local queer rights activist and founder of the Parkdale organization Gay West Community Network Inc., Michael Par�©, said that while he agrees that LGTBQ communities in Toronto face violence at times, in the last eight years there have been no such reports to his organization.
He added: "The Parkadale LGTBQ community doesn't really have the exclusive bar or group mentality, there are friendly and open places that may be gay-owned but they aren't exclusive to one particular group and I think that's the best way for one community to reach out to another and keep communication open."
There are currently no Parkdale or local west end organizations involved with the RHVP campaign, but Decker noted that the campaign is ongoing and that any organization that wanted to take part would be valued.
"In the end, this issue of hate motivated crime is something that affects all of us," said Decker. "We're hoping that through education and the empowering of LGTBQ youth the under-reporting of sexual orientation based hate crimes will decrease."
To read more on the RHVP initiative and to see what organizations the police are partnered with visit their website at www.torontopolice.on.ca/rhvp/
