A new report has warned of an alarming surge in hate incidents across Canada since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, with Islamophobic and anti-Palestine hate crimes spiking by as much as 1,800 percent in some regions.
The report, released early on Wednesday and titled "Documenting the 'Palestine Exception'" by author Nadia Hasan of York University's Islamophobia Research Hub, outlines what it calls a "sharp and dangerous" rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism (APR) and anti-Arab racism (AAR) over the past 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 said during a news conference in Ottawa.
Based on consultations with 16 Canadian organisations, public data and media reports, the report revealed that Toronto Police Services saw a 1,600 percent year-over-year increase in anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic hate crimes between October 7 and November 20, 2023.
According to Statistics Canada, a 94 percent spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes and a 52 percent rise in hate crimes against Arabs and West Asians were recorded in 2023.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) reported a 1,300 percent increase in Islamophobia cases in the month after October 7, rising to 1,800 percent over the year.
The Muslim Legal Support Centre (MLSC) documented 474 human rights complaints between October 2023 and March 2024, including 345 cases of individuals who lost jobs or were placed on leave due to support for Palestine. The Legal Centre for Palestine reported a 600 percent increase in APR cases over eight months.
Fraction of reality
Noting that the report captures only a fraction of what communities are facing, Hasan said: "The information included in this report is based on interviews with these organisations, data that some of these organisations provided, publicly available data, as well as media reports from October 2023 to November 2024."
Amira Elghawaby, Canada's Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia, warned that the findings demand urgent action.
"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.
Stressing that such incidents continue to occur daily across Canada and urging that they be confronted, she said: "Old tropes that surged after 9/11 are back, amplified by the far right and others, and used again to dehumanise our communities, especially Palestinian-Muslim and Arab-Canadians."
The report calls for the adoption of a definition of anti-Palestinian racism, better accountability for hate-motivated crimes, and independent investigations into how schools and public institutions have responded to these rising threats.
"Moving beyond this documentation project, which offers some contours of affected communities' lived experiences, the organisations that we consulted emphasised the need to inform the development of inclusive, interdisciplinary and human rights-based policy responses and best practices that address what many referred to as the 'Palestine exception,'" the report said.
