Reported hate crimes in several Canadian cities higher amid Israel-Hamas war, police say

Police say reports of hate crimes are up in several Canadian cities since Oct. 7 when Hamas launched its brutal attack on Israel — including spikes of antisemitism and Islamophobia in Toronto and Montreal. 

"Our in-house experts have advised that they indeed have seen an increase in reporting since Oct. 7," Ottawa Police said in a statement to CBC News late last month.

Data obtained by CBC News shows a hike in hate crimes reported in the cities with Canada's largest Jewish and Muslim populations, including Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

The increases are happening against the backdrop of the war in the Middle East, with Israel continuing its military campaign — through airstrikes and now a ground invasion — after the Oct. 7 massacre carried out by the militant group Hamas, which continues to launch thousands of rockets into civilian areas of Israel.

The violence's effects are rippling beyond the region, including into Canada. 

Police in Toronto — home to Canada's largest Jewish population and Muslim population — said that hate crime reports for much of October had more than doubled compared to the same period last year.

The city's police chief, Myron Demkiw, said there were 15 reported antisemitic hate crimes for the period of Oct. 7 to 25 compared to seven in the same time frame in 2022 and three in 2021.

Demkiw also said there have been five reported Islamophobic hate crimes for the same period of Oct. 7-25 this year. In 2022, there were zero, and in 2021 there was one. 

Demkiw called these findings "a very significant rise."

Montreal police reported a total of 14 and 38 hate crimes and/or incidents against the Arab-Muslim community and the Jewish community, respectively, for the same time period of Oct. 7-25. That is compared to 2022 figures where there was a total of 50 hate crimes targeting religion and 21 non-criminal hate "incidents" for the entire year. 

In Ottawa, police recorded 29 hate-motivated incidents for a similar time period of Oct. 7-23. They were not able to provide data from last year, but the majority of those 29 incidents "are somewhat linked to the ongoing conflict in the Gaza area," said Const. Cailey Walker, the service's spokesperson.

WATCH | Toronto police increase patrols amid Israel-Hamas war:

In Calgary, they had "11 files coming in in relation to the conflict" in the first couple of weeks after Oct. 7, said Matt Messenger, Calgary police hate crimes co-ordinator. Usually, situations that trigger a spike in hate crimes only have an effect for a few days. But Messenger says these hate crimes don't seem to be slowing down. 

"It's been spread out over the last couple of weeks, whereas in previous years … we've seen a bulk of files come in the first couple days and kind of fade away," he said.