Well, the hate crime sentencing provision applies to all crimes in the Criminal Code, including crimes of violence and crimes against property. As a conceptual issue, the more one expands a particular crime into an area that has already been covered by an existing Criminal Code provision, it does then, I think, raise the question of what effect that would have. I don't know what the effect might be, but could it have the effect of watering down the hate crime sentencing provision? I'm not entirely sure, but I do know, and this is something for you to consider, that in 2014 the Law Commission of the United Kingdom published a report entitled “Hate Crime: Should the Current Offences be Extended?”
They have certain hate crimes in there, specific hate crimes, but they also have, as we do, a provision dealing with sentencing. One of the issues they raised in the report was whether the expansion of the aggravated factors would have potential deterrent effects. I think one of the arguments that has sometimes been made around this table is that an expanded hate crime in this area might have a positive deterrent effect. So the question they asked was whether extending the offences would have a greater deterrent effect than pre-existing equivalent non-aggravated forms of offence. It goes on to say the following in its discussion of this:
there is significant doubt over both the direct and the general deterrent effects of criminal offences, their creation, prosecution or punishment. We consider that attributing any direct deterrent effect to extending the aggravated offences would be open to further doubt, in that the conduct involved is already criminal. People who are inclined, for reasons of hostility towards a victim's disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity, to commit one of the offences capable of being aggravated would probably not be deterred from doing so simply because a new criminal offence has been created with a higher potential sentence or an “aggravated” label.
It goes into somewhat more detail, comparing creating an aggravated hate crime and looking at the general sentencing provisions in British/U.K. law.
So you might want to have a look at that particular report as well for your deliberations. It's available on the Internet; just type in “Law Commission hate crime” and it will pop up.