Friday, August 12, 2022

Data On Canadian Hate Crimes Released

On Aug. 2, Statistics Canada released Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021. One section (Text Box 5) focuses on hate crimes and says in part:

The number of police-reported hate crimes in Canada increased by 27% in 2021, rising from 2,646 incidents to 3,360.... From 2020 to 2021, increases were noted in the number of police-reported hate crimes targeting religion (+354 incidents, +67%).... 

Police-reported hate crimes targeting the Jewish (+47%), Muslim (+71%) and Catholic (+260%) religions were up. The increase in hate crimes targeting the Muslim population follows a similar decrease in 2020; the increase also occurred in the same year as an attack in London, Ontario which targeted a Muslim family and resulted in four homicides and one attempted homicide.... In 2021, there were discoveries of unmarked graves on former residential school sites. Following these discoveries, there were reports of hate incidents targeting the Indigenous population as well as churches and other religious institutions....

JNS reports on the data.