A new report on hate crime in Canada suggests that a full one-quarter of all reported incidents between 2001-2002 were targeted against Jews:
One quarter of the 928 hate crimes reported by police between 2001 and 2002 were anti-Semitic in nature, said the survey of hate crimes.
It’s the first time that police have provided the data to Statistics Canada, the agency said.
Muslims were the victims of 11 per cent of hate crimes. While religion accounted for 48 per cent of incidents, it ranked second behind race and ethnicity as the primary motivator of these crimes.
I’m always a little skeptical of these studies, because the only crime data they have available is the data that gets reported. It is possible that, because of the strong position of the Jewish community in Canadian society and the existing infrastructure to combat hate crimes, that more people will report antisemitic incidents than other kinds.
But even despite that, the news is disturbing. Canada is considered one of the “safe havens” for Jewish people in the diaspora. And while the incidents are few, they’re not as few or as far between as they used to be… or as they should be. Over two hundred reported incidents – 41% involving violence – is not exactly comforting news. Even a little hate is too much.
Just out of curiousity, does that include ‘gay-bashing ‘ incidents? I’m guessing that if it does, that it would account for a lot of the violence.
(How does it get classified if it’s a Jewish gay guy, NDP supporter of course, who gets beat up…)
Yes, according to the article 10% of the hate crimes were based on sexual orientation. (Cynically I’d suspect it’s really more, as that’s one of the least-reported types of hate crimes).
And the Jewish gay NDP supporter who gets beat up? Depends whether they call him a “dirty Jew”, a “faggot”, or a “commie bastard” while they’re beating him up I suppose…