Canada’s Jewish population has become the most targeted minority for hate in the country, according to a report by the country’s national statistical office, Statistics Canada.
Data are drawn from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, a census of all crime known to police services.
In Canada, the 380,000-strong Jewish community comprises just one percent of the population. But according to a report released Tuesday by the national numbers keeper, a full 14 percent of hate crimes reported to police in 2021 were aimed at Canada’s Jews — a 47 percent jump in reported antisemitic hate crimes, compared to 2020.
There were 331 hate crimes against Jews reported in 2020; just one year later that figure rose to 487 incidents.
The government blamed the pandemic in part, saying it “further exposed and exacerbated issues related to safety and discrimination in Canada, including hate crime.”
The total number of police-reported hate-motivated crimes in Canada increased by 27 percent from 2,646 incidents in 2020 to 3,360 in 2021.
In total, the number of police-reported hate crimes in Canada rose 72 percent from 2019 to 2021, according to the report.
