Hate crimes in Toronto were up 19 per cent in 2024, but decreasing this year: police
TORONTO – Toronto police say reported hate crimes increased by 19 per cent in 2024, but have significantly dropped so far this year.
The annual hate crime report to the Toronto Police Service Board says 443 incidents were reported last year compared to 372 in 2023, marking a slower rate of increase in hate crimes reported between 2023 and 2024.
The report says that so far this year, there has been a 47-per-cent decrease in reported hate crimes compared to the same time last year.
But police say hate crimes are still a serious concern as many of them are underreported.
Police say 115 people were charged with hate-motivated offences in 2024, an 84-per-cent increase compared to the year before.
They say 209 hate-motivated criminal charges were laid in 2024, up from 156 charges in 2023.
The most frequent targets of hate crimes were the Jewish, LGBTQ+, Black and Muslim communities, police said.
'The report also identified a notable increase in hate crimes targeting the South Asian community, rising from 14 in 2023 to 41 in 2024,' police said in a news release.
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Streets and public transit were the most common locations for reported hate crimes in Toronto and police say they have partnered with the Toronto Transit Commission to address the issue with several educational campaigns.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2025.
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The head of a national team set up to support police departments investigating cases of extortion in cities across Canada said Surrey's municipal police force is working well with the RCMP, but could not comment on why significant arrests have been made in Ontario and Alberta and not B.C. RCMP Supt. Adam MacIntosh said there is a high level of 'competence and cooperation' between SPS and RCMP officers investigating the series of extortions targeting South Asian businesses. His team was created in the fall of 2023 to increase coordination between police departments in Canadian cities, such as Brampton, Edmonton and Surrey, which were all seeing a rise in extortion cases at that time. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Since then, police in Brampton and Edmonton have made arrests, while the attacks in Surrey appear to be ramping up again, with two more shootings this week, including one at Surrey's Nijjar Trucking and another at the Maple Ridge home of a Punjabi music producer. MacIntosh was unable to comment on any possible links between the extortions in Brampton and Edmonton and those in Surrey, including the suggestion that the Bishnoi gang, an organized crime group based in India, might be connected to the violence in Surrey. Earlier this week, B.C. Premier David Eby asked the federal government to classify the gang as a terrorist group. Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke said Thursday the lack of clarity on who is behind the extortions is frustrating. 'That's why I'm calling on the province and our national police, the RCMP, to really put their shoulder into this,' she said. The possibility of international organized crime involvement means 'it's going to take our national police.' Speaking at a public safety forum last weekend, the mayor said a single national dashboard that flags extortion incidents within hours, not weeks, is needed. She also wants a joint provincial-federal task force to audit the impact of the Surrey police transition on 'organized crime activity with the authority to redirect resources on the spot.' 'Policing is not an experiment,' she said in reference to the transition. 'We are not getting the kind of service and attention that we need in order to keep our citizens safe. Not just from Surrey Police Service and not just from E-division RCMP, but the entire nation. What happens right now in Surrey falls squarely on the province's shoulders. How it is fixed — and make no mistake, it must be fixed — falls squarely on the provincial government.' MacIntosh said timely information about extortions is being shared between police departments. He encouraged the public to continue to report extortion attempts to police. While he was not able to comment on links between extortions across Canada, he said it is clear organized crime groups are motivated by profit, and some groups see 'extortion as an easy way to make a profit.' One way to counter that is to take away the profitability, whether through arrests, or by reporting attempts to police, he said. 'If people are paying and not telling us, that works in the favour of organized crime.' As reported by CBC News Edmonton this week, court records show an extortion scheme that targeted South Asian homebuilders in Alberta for several months in 2023 and 2024 had links to B.C.'s Brothers Keepers gang. Edmonton Police Service arrested six people in July 2024 as part of Project Gaslight, a special investigation into 34 extortions, which included arsons and shootings. A seventh person, Maninder Dhaliwal, who was suspected of orchestrating the attacks from abroad, remained at large for several months until he was arrested in the United Arab Emirates on separate charges. Earlier this year, Edmonton police applied to have him extradited to Alberta to face charges, although Canada does not have an extradition treaty with UAE. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Divnoor Singh Asht, one of the men arrested last summer as part of Project Gaslight, recently pleaded guilty to arson, extortion and conspiring to commit extortion. An agreed statement of facts in the case said some of the group behind the Edmonton extortions were members of Brothers Keepers, although there was no evidence Asht was one of them, according to the CBC. He admitted to 'assembling and instructing the lower members of the group to carry out the extortion and related arsons. These actions were based on the direction and instruction of Maninder Dhaliwal and Harpreet Uppal, prior to his death.' Uppal's death in 2023 shocked many across Canada as his 11-year-old son was gunned down alongside him. The court records reported by CBC identified Uppal as a key part of the extortion scheme and a member of Brothers Keepers. In a statement to Postmedia on Friday, Edmonton police spokesperson Cheryl Voordenhout said police are still investigating the extortion scheme, but cannot share details. Edmonton police are in close contact with police in B.C. and across Canada 'as we increasingly manage transnational crime groups.' She confirmed they are still pursuing Dhaliwal's extradition. During their investigation, Edmonton police enlisted the public's help to identify suspects, putting out several news releases on their progress and releasing surveillance photos of suspects buying and filling gas containers. The team had a dedicated tip line and email address. Police in B.C. have not linked the extortion scheme to the Brothers Keepers. The B.C. gang, which was started in about 2016 by the late Gavinder Grewal, has been locked in an eight-year gang conflict against shifting rivals including in the BIBO gang and the United Nations. The extortions in Ontario appear to be linked to organized crime as well. On Monday, Peel police said they had dismantled a crime group involved in extortion and insurance fraud, arresting 18 people as part of Project Outsource. As reported by CTV News Ontario this week, the investigation was launched in 2023 after a sharp rise in extortions targeting the South Asian business community. 'The threats escalated into a variety of different offences, including drive-by shootings, arsons, a variety of acts of violence that spread fear and insecurity,' Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said at a news conference this week. Police were able to link a Brampton-based crime group to the extortions, as well as a scheme where they allegedly staged dozens of collisions on Greater Toronto roads in an effort to defraud insurance companies. Police seized four high-end personal vehicles, five stolen vehicles, six firearms, 600 rounds of ammunition, two bulletproof vests, and $45,000 in Canadian currency as they laid almost 100 charges, with more expected. Although the Bishnoi gang was not mentioned by police in the recent arrests, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said he was supportive of Eby's request to designate the gang as a terrorist group. Brown said Peel police told him a terrorist designation 'would be helpful' and the gang is involved in 'serious criminal activity' in Ontario. 'We're talking about extortions and murders in our region.' Asked about Eby's request Wednesday, federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said national security officials 'continuously' review whether criminal organizations meet the legal threshold to be named as terrorist groups. RCMP have alleged that Indian diplomats shared information about Sikh separatists in Canada with the Indian government and that top Indian officials then passed the information to the Bishnoi gang. Brown said the gang has become more brazen in Brampton and local police have spotted vehicles with Bishnoi-affiliated decals in the city. 'They have over 700 shooters worldwide. They meet every threshold that is required to be designated as a terrorist organization,' he said. 'And if we can give police this tool to allow them to better combat this threat in Canada, I think that is a no-brainer.' With files from Canadian Press gluymes@
