Toronto has seen a sharp rise in hate crimes
The local police chief expressed concern.
On Thursday morning, November 23rd, Police Chief Myron Demkiw spoke at the Toronto Police Services Board meeting. He presented statistics that showed a significant increase in both Islamophobic and anti-Semitic hate crimes. Demkiw called it "an alarming trend." Earlier, a similar problem was reported by Montreal law enforcement.
Since the Arab-Israeli conflict escalated October 7, there have been 17 incidents of Islamophobic or anti-Palestinian hate crimes in Toronto, compared to one in the same time period in 2022 (an increase of 1,600%).
Anti-Semitic hate crimes are up 192% over the same period last year and account for nearly half (49%) of all 79 hate crime reports received by Toronto police since the start of the war.
"To combat these deeply concerning issues we have committed a significant number of resources to address these overall increases, as well as every category of hate," the police chief added.
In a wave of rising hate crimes, Toronto police have expanded their hate crimes unit from 6 to 32 officers. Since Oct. 7, they have made 22 arrests and laid 58 charges in connection with reported hate crimes. The most common charges were threats, disorderly conduct and assault with a weapon.There has also been an increase in hate speech graffiti, with 280 pieces of Islamophobic and anti-Semitic graffiti compared to 21 for the same period in 2022.
