There was a study by the Department of Justice recently that talked about understanding the community impact of hate crimes. It quotes David Matas as saying, “People live in community. Rights are exercised in community”, and the commission of a hate crime is not just against the individual but against the entire community.
It's important to consider the impact and how the impact on the community is particularly devastating, as these sorts of crimes are message crimes as well. The perpetrator is sending a message to particular members of a certain group that they're despised and that they're devalued or unwelcome in a particular neighbourhood or community. It's also important to consider the impact on the individual victims themselves. The victim may begin to reject aspects of themselves that were the target of the attack or associate part of their identity with fear, loss, and vulnerability.
I can certainly tell you that the feedback I've had from within the Ottawa community following those attacks, which you mentioned, both from our inter-faith partners in the Jewish community, in the black community, and the Christian community as well, shows that there has been real fear generated by these attacks. It resonates. These are places people go with their families, with their children, and they show up on a day of worship and see these things, and it's deeply, deeply unsettling.