The Toronto skyline. Photo: John Vetterli via Wikimedia Commons.

Newly-published police data showed that Jews were the most targeted group for hate crimes in the greater Toronto area last year.

In all, 44 out of 139 hate-related incidents — or 32 percent — registered in the City of Toronto last year targeted Jews.

In the neighboring York Region, Jews were targeted in 40 out of 133 total recorded incidents — or 30 percent.

“We are sad to see that the trends we’ve been warning of for some time now are coming to fruition, and the alarming rise of antisemitism is continuing to expand,” Michael Mostyn — chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada — stated. “We call on all levels of government to recognize this problem and combat it immediately by adopting B’nai Brith’s Eight-Point Plan to Tackle Antisemitism.”