The pandemic disruption contributed to the rise of hate behavior and discrimination, reflecting historical increases in anti-Semitism, said the CEO of the Greater Vancouver Jewish Federation.

Ezra Shankin said that anti-Semitism is often redefined to fit current events, and the pandemic was no different, but he expressed sympathy for other communities that also saw an increase in hate-motivated incidents during the early years of the pandemic.

New figures released by Statistics Canada show that hate crimes reported to the police continued to rise across the country in the second year of the pandemic as people were targeted based on race, religion, and sexual orientation.

As the agency said in a press release on Wednesday, all provinces and territories saw an increase in hate crime reports in 2021 except Yukon, where it remained unchanged.

The figures showed that religion-motivated incidents increased by 67 percent across Canada, while police reports related to sexual orientation rose by 63 percent, and race-related incidents increased by six percent.

Shankin said that Jews in Canada were certainly not strangers to discrimination before the pandemic, but what was troubling for him was the revival of anti-Semitic language and the misappropriation of Holocaust symbols by anti-vaccine groups.

The Statistics agency also stated that the pandemic "exacerbated experiences of discrimination," including hate crimes, and "confirmed the increase in discourse" on this issue.

Overall, 3,360 hate crimes from all motives were reported to the police in 2021, an increase of 27 percent, after a 35 percent rise in 2020.

Reports of hate crimes targeting East and Southeast Asians also rose by 16 percent to 305 incidents in 2021, more than four times higher than in 2019.

Statistics Canada said that community awareness and relationships with the police can affect whether incidents are reported at all, and just over one in five reported incidents lead to recommendation or laying of charges.

The agency added that victims and accused of reported hate crimes are mostly men and boys.

In British Columbia, reports of religious hate crimes more than doubled to 150 cases in 2021, while they tripled in Alberta to 91 incidents.

Meanwhile, in Ontario, hate crimes based on sexual orientation rose by 107 percent.