Canada Reports Shocking Increase in Islamophobic, Anti-Palestinian Hate Crimes
(MENAFN) A new report released early Wednesday highlights a staggering increase in hate incidents across Canada following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, with some regions experiencing Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian hate crimes soaring by up to 1,800%.
The study, titled Documenting the 'Palestine Exception' and authored by Nadia Hasan from York University’s Islamophobia Research Hub, details what it describes as a “sharp and dangerous” escalation in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism (APR), and anti-Arab racism (AAR) over the last 21 months.
“In the aftermath of Oct. 2023, Canada saw a rise in anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism that affects many areas of life and work for Canadians,” Hasan stated during a news briefing in Ottawa.
Drawing from interviews with 16 Canadian organizations, publicly accessible data, and media reports, the report found that Toronto Police Services registered a 1,600% year-over-year surge in anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic hate crimes from October 7 to November 20, 2023.
Statistics Canada documented a 94% increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes and a 52% rise in hate crimes targeting Arabs and West Asians throughout 2023.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) reported a 1,300% jump in Islamophobia cases during the month following October 7, climbing to 1,800% over the course of the year.
Between October 2023 and March 2024, the Muslim Legal Support Centre (MLSC) recorded 474 human rights complaints, including 345 individuals who lost employment or were suspended due to their support for Palestine. The Legal Centre for Palestine noted a 600% increase in APR cases over an eight-month period.
Hasan cautioned that the report reflects only a fraction of the widespread challenges communities are enduring: “The information included in this report is based on interviews with these organizations, data that some of these organizations provided, publicly available data, as well as media reports from Oct. 2023 to Nov. 2024.”
Canada’s Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, emphasized the urgent need for action in response to the findings.
“We see it in the censorship and silencing of Canadians who defend Palestinian human rights with real consequences on their livelihoods and on their futures,” she said.
Highlighting the ongoing nature of these attacks nationwide and the necessity of confronting them, Elghawaby added: “Old tropes that surged after 9/11 are back, amplified by the far right and others, and used again to dehumanize our communities, especially Palestinian-Muslim and Arab-Canadians.”
The report urges the formal adoption of an anti-Palestinian racism definition, stronger accountability measures for hate crimes, and independent probes into the responses of schools and public institutions to this alarming rise in threats.
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