Hate crimes drop in Canada for first time in years

Hate crimes in Canada have gone down for the first time in five years, police and government data shows.

Hate crimes in Canada have gone down for the first time in five years, police and government data shows.

There were 1,798 hate crimes reported to police in 2018, down from 2,073 in 2017, according to new data from Statistics Canada, a government agency.

The decrease was mostly due to a large decline in crimes against Muslims, the federal data agency reported on Monday.

But advocates warn the numbers fail to tell the whole story, as many hate crimes are not reported to police.

The last calendar year had the second-highest number of reported hate crimes since 2009, only beaten by 2017.

Hate crimes targeting race and ethnicity accounted for 43% of all hate crimes, followed by those targeting religion, which accounted for 36% of all hate crimes.

Deadly shootings at synagogues in San Diego and Pittsburgh in the US, and at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, have put a spotlight on the reported rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia around the world.