Police warn that hate crime has doubled in the City following the war in the Middle East.
Toronto Police say hate crime has almost doubled in the City and officers are now responding to about 10 cases a week.
Chief Myron Demkiw said since last October the force and his Hate Crime Unit have investigated about 157 hate crimes calls for service every month.
“This year, there have been 304 hate crime calls for service attended,” the Chief said at a Police Services Board meeting on March 18. “This is an increase of 225 calls from the same time last year.”
He noted there have been 84 confirmed hate crimes this year, which is a ‘notable increase’ compared to this time last year. It represents an 83 per cent rise.
Chief Myron Demkiw said many hate-related crimes are significantly under-reported to police.
“Anti-semitism accounts for more hate crimes than any other bias category this year and in years prior,” Demkiw said. “This year there has been 47 anti-semitic hate crimes.”
The second highest bias category this year were 2SLGBTQI+ hate crimes, of which there have been 11 incidents this year, compared to six at this time last year.
That is followed by five cases of hate against anti-Black, and anti-Muslim/Arab/Palestine groups.
“It has been 163 days since the Middle East crisis began, and the impact of the geopolitical unrest abroad continues to affect people worldwide, including in Canada and right here in Toronto,” the Chief explained. “We are laser focused on the task at hand: keeping the city safe.”
Police will be setting up command posts like this outside mosques and places of worship in the City.
He said since last October hate crimes rose 93 per cent compared to the same period last year. The Service has attended 989 hate crime calls for service during this time.
“While we saw a reduction in calls for service for hate crimes in December and January, we have seen a significant increase in February, with a 67 per cent rise in calls,” the Chief said. “Of the 84 hate crimes so far in 2024, 56 per cent are anti-semitic. Last month saw the highest number of anti-semitic occurrences in the last three years.”
The Service has made 24 protest-related arrests and laid 30 charges since last October.
“While under reporting of all forms of hate crimes is a concern, I know from talking to people in the community that Islamophobia is a significant concern, and given our statistics I am concerned about significant under-reporting in this regard.”
Chief Demkiw is concerned that hate crime and graffiti have almost doubled in the last year.
He said while attending an event in the Muslim community recently a female student told him of hate-related incidents she has undergone using public transit ‘and those incidents are under-reported.’
Since last October there have been 69 arrests and 173 charges related to hate crime occurrences.
Of the charges laid, 25 per cent were mischief related, 17 percent for uttering threats and 16 per cent were assault-related, he said.
Demkiw said there was a peak in hate-related graffiti last month, which followed spikes last October and November.