Data shows that Canadian Jews are the most targeted religious groups in 2024 – Country
Hate crimes against Canada have increased for the sixth consecutive year, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada, which shows that attacks against the Jewish community far outweigh other types of religiously motivated attacks in 2024.
The report released last week provides some insight into the police report’s hate crime motives. The primary factors are race and race, religion is the second common motivation factor, and sexual orientation is the third.
A total of 4,882 hate crimes were reported in 2024, an increase of 1% from 4,828 in 2023, part of the reported surge in hate crimes since 2020.
In the religiously motivated hate crime category, 1,342 hate crimes were seen in 2024, which is roughly the same as the 1,345 year old in 2023, up from 768 in 2022.
In 2024, hate crimes were classified as religiously motivated in 1,343 reports, with hate crimes targeting the Jewish community accounting for 920, or about 68%.
The second largest religiously motivated hate crime is targeting Muslim Canadians, with 229 reports in 2024, slightly higher than the 220 incidents in 2023 and 109 incidents in 2022.
For Catholics, there were 61 hate crimes reported in 2024, compared with 49 in 2023 and 52 in 2022.
Religious groups classified as “other” by Statistics Canada have also found an increase in hate crime reports, with 105 incidents in 2024, 85 in 2023 and 62 in 2022.
Get national news
For news that affects Canada and around the world, please sign up for breaking news alerts that were sent directly to you at the time.
The findings are more than a month after the National Holocaust Memorial in Ottawa led to charges against a 46-year-old Ottawa man. The investigation was led by the Ottawa Police Department’s Hate and Prejudice Crime Department.
“The latest police crime statistics are shocking – in 2024, Jewish Canadians are 25 times more likely to experience hate crimes than any other Canadian,” Noah Shack, CEO of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said in an emailed statement.
“But the numbers don’t depict the full picture. They only reflect a small part of what Jews experience every day. The reality of the day is that families want to know if it’s safe to walk to the synagogue, be inspected, and students are bullied and harassed for becoming Jews.”
Canadian Muslim communities have also been the focus of religiously motivated hate crimes and attacks, and police reports are increasing. The Canadian Muslim Advisory Committee (MACC) described the upward trend as “disturbingly disturbing, but not surprising.”
“Our community continues to be picked out for its beliefs, facing verbal abuse, physical attacks and systemic discrimination between public and private spaces,” said Board Director Tabassum Wyne in an emailed statement.
“These data confirm what we’ve been asking for a long time: anti-Muslim hatred in Canada is not only continuing, but growing, and is putting lives at risk. Behind these numbers are people, families, living in fear. This cannot be the Canadian reality we accept.”
Although instances of anti-Semitism are not new in Canada, reports of hate crimes targeting the Jewish community increased by 82% in 2023 compared to 2022.
The second half of 2023 marks the beginning of a tension conflict in the Middle East that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack killed 1,200 people in Israel and hundreds took hostages.
The conflict continues to escalate and remains the same, and attempts fail repeatedly.
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
