Jewish, Black people most frequent victims of hate crimes in region

Hate crimes in the Region of Waterloo were down slightly overall in 2025, but Black and Jewish people are still the most targeted.

A report to the Waterloo Regional Police Service board said there were 224 hate-motivated crimes reported to police last year, down 5 per cent from 2024.

Almost half came in the form of mischief, like racist symbols in graffiti.

But almost 1 in 5 cases involved an assault.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion manager, Geraldine Stafford, told the board that for such crimes based on race, 44 percent were targeted at Black people.

For religion, 86 per cent were targeted at Jewish people.

Breaking down 2025 hate crimes by offence type, it was:

• 53 per cent of police reported hate-motivated crimes were non-violent
• 43 per cent mischief (up 4 per cent from 2024)
• 18 per cent level 1 assault (same as 2024)
• 15 per cent Uttering Threats (up 3 per cent)
• 14 per cent other violent offences (down 7 per cent)
• 10 per cent ‘other’ non-violent offences (same as 2024)

And for specific groups of people the report said:

• Hate-motivated crimes most often targeted individuals on the basis of race: 57 per cent
• 2025 saw decreases in hate-motivated crimes for race and sexual orientation, 7 per cent
• Increases in hate-motivated crimes based on religion 22 per cent
• And on the basis of immigrant/newcomer status 11 per cent

Last year was the first time Statistics Canada brought in the criteria to track hate-motivated crimes under the category immigrant/newcomer.

At the Wednesday meeting, the police board heard from WRPS data analyst, Hasan Siddiqui, who explained that one hate crime can include more than one category.

By way of example, he said an offender could say to a victim, “Go back to your country,” but then add in an extra racial slur. That would count as both an offence listed under the race and newcomer categories.

Police Chief Mark Crowell, noted how local hate crime stats are higher than the national average, but he attributes that to a “silver lining,” in that it shows how people trust WRPS enough to come forward so often.