Instances of police-reported hate crimes spiked in 2021
The number of police-reported hate crimes in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo saw a drastic jump between 2020 and 2021 with a total of 77 hate crimes reported in 2021 compared to 54 the year before.
In comparison, there were 15 police-reported hate crimes in 2019.
This comes from a new report released by Statistics Canada that outlines the number and rate of hate crimes reported to police.
The figures show a spike across the country in the second year of the pandemic as people were targeted by race, religion and sexual orientation.
The agency said all provinces and territories experienced increases in hate crime reports in 2021 except in the Yukon, where they were unchanged.
“The number of hate crimes reported by police in Canada rose from 2,646 incidents in 2020 to 3,360 in 2021, a 27 per cent increase. This finding follows a 36 per cent increase in 2020. The number of police-reported hate crimes rose by 72 per cent from 2019 to 2021,” the report reads.
The new data shows Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo is the fifth highest census area when it comes to police-reported hate crimes, behind London with 87.
The highest census area was Toronto with 779, followed by Ottawa with 260 and Hamilton with 91 reported hate crimes.
According to the report, from 2020 to 2021, much of the rise in hate crimes targeting a race or ethnicity was the result of more reported hate crimes targeting the Arab and West Asian populations, East and Southeast Asian populations and the South Asian populations.
The report shows the number of reported hate crimes per 100,000 people is 12.6 in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, compared to the Canadian rate of 8.8.
Locally, the number was 8.9 in 2020 and 2.5 in 2019.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
From essential goods to common stocking stuffers, Trudeau offering Canadians temporary tax relief
Canadians will soon receive a temporary tax break on several items, along with a one-time $250 rebate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
She thought her children just had a cough or fever. A mother shares sons' experience with walking pneumonia
A mother shares with CTVNews.ca her family's health scare as medical experts say cases of the disease and other respiratory illnesses have surged, filling up emergency departments nationwide.
Trump chooses Pam Bondi for attorney general pick after Gaetz withdraws
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, to be U.S. attorney general just hours after his other choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration.
Putin says Russia attacked Ukraine with a new missile that he claims the West can't stop
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that Moscow has tested a new intermediate-range missile in a strike on Ukraine, and he warned that it could use the weapon against countries that have allowed Kyiv to use their missiles to strike Russia.
A one-of-a-kind Royal Canadian Mint coin sells for more than $1.5M
A rare one-of-a-kind pure gold coin from the Royal Canadian Mint has sold for more than $1.5 million. The 99.99 per cent pure gold coin, named 'The Dance Screen (The Scream Too),' weighs a whopping 10 kilograms and surpassed the previous record for a coin offered at an auction in Canada.
Here's a list of items that will be GST/HST-free over the holidays
Canadians won't have to pay GST on a selection of items this holiday season, the prime minister vowed on Thursday.
Video shows octopus 'hanging on for dear life' during bomb cyclone off B.C. coast
Humans weren’t the only ones who struggled through the bomb cyclone that formed off the B.C. coast this week, bringing intense winds and choppy seas.
Taylor Swift's motorcade spotted along Toronto's Gardiner Expressway
Taylor Swift is officially back in Toronto for round two. The popstar princess's motorcade was seen driving along the Gardiner Expressway on Thursday afternoon, making its way to the downtown core ahead of night four of ‘The Eras Tour’ at the Rogers Centre.
Service Canada holding back 85K passports amid Canada Post mail strike
Approximately 85,000 new passports are being held back by Service Canada, which stopped mailing them out a week before the nationwide Canada Post strike.