Despite an overall decrease in the number of hate crimes, Jew hatred still an ‘urgent concern,’ community leaders say
By David Lazarus, JTA
SimonP/Wikimedia Commons
Canadian Jews for a third straight year were the most targeted minority group for hate crimes in the country, thought there was a 4 percent decrease.
The data for crimes reported to police in 2018 was released on Monday by Statistics Canada. The number of incidents dropped to 345 from 360 in 2017.
Other minorities saw more significant declines. Hate crimes against Muslims fell 50 percent, to 173, and blacks saw a 15 percent drop to 283.
In 2018, Canadian police responded to 1,798 hate crimes, compared to 2,073 in 2017.
“We are encouraged to see an overall decline in hate crimes, [but] this data confirms the persistence of Jew hatred, which is seeing an alarming global rise,” Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel said.
The numbers show that hate crimes against Jews remain an “urgent concern,” B’nai Brith Canada President Michael Mostyn said.
@ David melech:
I would think that a “Hate Crime” would not include such antisemitic comments or language such as “Jewed him down”, an expression that just denotes ignorance in many cases, but would be something that endangers a person’s life or safety or such serious vandalism as certain forms of graffiti or the damaging of Jewish property such as overturning gravestones.
Having been born and grown up spending most of my life in Canada, now 82 years old, I would consider the “No Jews Allowed” designations of clubs, etc., and the fact that we lived 3 doors and across the road from a “Restricted” residential area to be antisemitism rather than a hate crime.
Hate crimes (what is a hate crime?) Against Jews will always be a fact of living. Is it a crime when someone says ‘I jewed them down meaning they got a better price, or is just plain ignorance? What is the definition of a hate crime? Who’s definition? So many words have been stolen by groups who decide that use of a word is ‘hate’ or discrimination. In Blighty you still buy frozen faggots, if i declare that purchase entering certain counties will the use of the word faggot create a prob?