Toronto police have released their hate crime statistics report which shows a slight year-over-year decrease in 2022, but still a significant jump from pre-pandemic times.
In their findings, police said 2022 saw a decrease in reported hate crimes of six per cent compared to 2021 — 242 incidents compared to 257.
However, the number of hate crimes reported in 2022 was still 74 per cent higher than in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, when there were 139 incidents.
Compared to the 10-year average at 173 incidents, from 2013 to 2022, last year’s hate crimes were still 40 per cent higher.
The numbers also showed the Jewish and Black communities were the most frequently victimized groups for hate-motivated mischief to property incidents, police said.
But the LGBTQ community experienced the most hate-motivated assaults.
When it came to hate crimes where there was uttering threats, the Black community and LGBTQ communities were the most targeted.
Another notable finding was an increase in anti-Ukrainian and anti-Russian hate crimes after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, police said.
For anti-East and South East Asian hate crimes, police said those decreased in 2022. Although, they remained higher than pre-pandemic levels for the Asian community. The Asian community was also the most frequently victimized group on public transit.
The data was pulled from hate crimes reported to the Toronto Police Service between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2022.