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Toronto (August 2, 2022) – The Jewish community remains the religious group most targeted for hate crimes in Canada after seeing a 47 per cent increase in police-reported antisemitic crimes in 2021, according to a Statistics Canada report.

The Police-reported crime statistics in Canada report, released today, reveals that hate crimes in Canada increased by 27 per cent, with crimes against religious communities accounting for most of the change, followed by the LGBTQ+ community.

Of the religious groups, the Catholic community saw the most dramatic increase in hate crimes, with a 260 per cent increase, followed by the Muslim and Jewish communities, which saw 71 and 47 per cent increases respectively.

The Jewish community remains the most targeted religious group, with 487 hate crimes targeting Jews reported in 2021, and the second most targeted group overall after the Black community, which reported 642 hate crimes last year.

“Once again, the Jewish community has remained one of the leading groups victimized by hate crimes in Canada, news that comes as no surprise as we’ve continued to witness a dramatic rise in reports of antisemitic incidents over the past few years,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, Director of Policy at Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC). “Unfortunately, in reality, the number of hate crimes targeting Jews and other minority groups is much higher than stated in the report, as many incidents go unreported. All Canadians must remain vigilant and call police when they witness or are the victims of hate crimes.”