Wildly Disproportionate Hate Crimes Against Jewish Canadians

"The latest hate crime data further reinforce Canada's antisemitism crisis, with Jews targeted at rates disproportionate to any other community."

"While the number can fluctuate year-to-year, we've been tracking the proportion of hate crimes targeting the Jewish community very closely as a bellwether for what's happening in Canadian society."

"When criminals attack Jews, it's not because of how we pray."

"Nothing can justify attacks on Canadians here in Canada, no mater what  you think about what's going on a half a world away."

Noah Shack, chief executive, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs/Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA

Police tape outside synagogue in Thornhill, Ont. struck by bullets following start of Iran war. Global News

 

In Canada, police reported 4,708 hate crimes for 2024, three percent fewer than the 4,841 reported for 2024, according to Statistics Canada. Prior to this decline there were six years of increases, more than doubling the national count between 2018 and 2024. Those hate crimes that have been motivated by religious bigotry fell 18 percent to 1,114 incidents. Jewish people were targeted out of that total 788 times, 15 percent fewer such incidents than the year before, yet representing 71 percent of all religion-motivated hate crimes.

 

The target of over 15 percent of all hate crime incidents, Jewish Canadians represent just under one percent of the overall Canadian population. A Jewish Canadian is 22 times likelier to be a victim of a hate crime than is any other Canadian. In 2024, Jews accounted for 69 percent of religion-motivated incidents, and 71 percent in 2025.

 

Extremists living in Canada, along with foreign principals from abroad are involved in anti-Israel hate, fed by conspiracy theories. The leading proponents of slander against both Israel and Jews in Canada emerged from among the Canadian Muslim population whose numbers now aggregate over five times the numbers of Jewish Canadians. 

 

Violence such as fire bombings and synagogue shootings as well as at Jewish parochial schools, along with vandalism striking Jewish-owned businesses, and aggravated boycotts have wracked the Jewish community since October 7, 2023, when Palestinian student groups organized street protests that called for internationalizing the 'Intifada', while accusing Israel of 'Apartheid' and 'genocidal' intentions in the Palestinian Territories, somehow managing to bypass the origins of the current war in Gaza, propelled by the Hamas-led slaughter in southern Israel.  

"When criminals attack Jews, it’s not because of how we pray. Much of today's antisemitic violence – which includes gunfire and firebombing of synagogues and schools, vandalizing businesses, and assaulting community members – is perpetrated by extremists at home and foreign actors abroad, driven by conspiracy theories and anti-Israel hate. Governments and authorities must be unequivocal: nothing can justify these criminal acts targeting Canadians."

"Government and authorities at all levels must acknowledge the drivers of today's antisemitism, including the extremism and radicalization that fuel attacks against Jews; consistent enforcement of the law; get tough on terror; and ensure public institutions and government bodies, such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Canada Revenue Agency, are not weaponized against Canadians."

Noah Shack, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

Global News

 

The largest category of hate crimes at 2,391 incidents, sees race or ethnicity at the top, while Blacks were targets of 858 incidents and attacks targeting South Asians rose to 483 such events, concentrated in Ontario and British Columbia. The trend declined for most other racialized groups in Canada. Jewish Canadians were targeted more frequently than any other group, measured against population size. 

 

One Anti-Jewish hate crime occurred for every 366 Jews in Canada in 2024, compared to one for every 1,961 for Black Canadians, and one for every 9,091 Muslim Canadians, revealed the Canadian Jewish Barometer, a study co-authored by Robert Brym, emeritus sociology professor at University of Toronto. Disability, language, sex, age and immigrants or newcomers as a separate category, rose 52 percent to 562 incidents. 

 

The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR), which is allegedly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, claimed responsibility for two shootings in Canada. Global News

 

"There's a lot of hate that's spreading out there that doesn't rise to the criminal level, whether we're talking about bullying in schools, discrimination in the workplace and general attitudes that people are confronted with as they go about their daily lives."

"These numbers are an important indicator of what our community is facing, but of course behind each number is a story of a family and a community that has suffered a hate crime."

Noah Shack, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs