VANCOUVER, Canada — Coordinator of the Vancouver Police department Hate Crimes Unit Detective Sergeant Cheryl Leggett says that the imposition of stiff sanctions has led to increased awareness about gay bashing in this southwestern province.

According to Leggett, the court can ask for increased sentencing on a charge if it can be proven that the offence is a hate crime.

“We have had two very big cases in the last six years, which have empowered the gay community, and so they won’t tolerate any form of gay bashing,” she told the Jamaican delegation of journalists and policy makers who are here in Vancouver for a knowledge exchange, organised by Panos Caribbean in partnership with the Simon Fraser University and the Vancouver Initiative.

“It may just be someone in a car shouting slurs, but I suggest to them that they give us the license plate number because they could return with a shotgun,” explained Leggett, who also has a responsibility to teach new recruits how to identify and investigate hate crimes..

Local media reported earlier this week that the trial of two brothers accused in an alleged 2010 gay-bashing wrapped up on November 22 with the prosecutor saying she had proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt and defence lawyers maintaining that their clients were not conclusively identified.

Parminder Singh Peter Bassi is charged with two counts of assault causing bodily harm while his brother, Ravinder Robbie Bassi, is charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm.

The attack is said to have sent Peter Regier and his late partner David Holtzman to hospital after they were assaulted outside their Keefer Place home, while allegedly being subjected to a barrage of homophobic slurs.

Vancouver police chief Jim Chu told the delegation that hate crimes have been decreasing.

“In the past, these crimes were not reported because persons didn’t know the police would take it seriously,” he said, explaining that there was an initial spike in the number of incidents, but that could be attributed to the fact that more persons were making reports.

The Hate Crimes Unit is part of the Diversity and Aboriginal Policing Section and was established to provide support to both the Patrol Division and Investigative Sections throughout the city.

Under the Criminal Code of Canada, a hate crime is defined as a criminal offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by the suspect’s hate, bias or prejudice against an identifiable group based on the victim’s race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or any other similar factor.

However, Det Sergeant Legget said the most prevalent offences have to do with religion, race and sexual orientation.

“Now the two most victimised groups are the Jews and the gays,” she said.

Offenders, she said, are mainly young men in the age group of 18 to 25 years.

The Unit, she said, receives 15 cases of suspected to be hates crimes per month, however only about four will turn out to be valid.