Jews have been subject to more hate crimes than any other group in Toronto in 2022.
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) has published its 2022 hate crimes report revealing that hate targeting Jewish, Black, and LGBTQ+ populations remained the most commonly reported to police, representing 26%, 19%, and 16% of all hate crimes, respectively. The report, published on Thursday, counts 242 reported hate crimes in 2022, which reflects a six% decrease compared to 2021, a level still well above the ten-year average of 173.
Toronto’s Jewish community was targeted in 63 reported hate crime incidents in 2022. Although comprising only 3.4% of the population of Toronto, the Jewish community was victimized in approximately 26% of all hate crimes. Anti-Jewish hate crime has increased by 50% over the last three years.
In response to the report, Noah Shack, Vice President, GTA at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), released a comment: “We are concerned to see how severely hate crime is impacting Toronto’s Jewish, Black, and LGBTQ2S communities. Hate doesn’t just affect its targeted victims; it is corrosive to our entire society. A single hate crime targeting any group in our city is too many. Antisemitism is on the rise in Canada and around the world. The Jewish community is only 3.4% of Toronto’s population but was disproportionately targeted by 26% of reported hate crimes. It’s alarming that while hate crimes in Toronto declined overall, incidents of Jew-hatred increased by 14%”.