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Since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, crimes motivated by bigotry have risen sharply in Canada.

Statistics Canada reported that police-reported hate crime was up 47 percent in 2017. This comes after "steady but relatively small increases since 2014".

There were 2,073 such offences in 2017, and the rise was "largely the result of an increase in hate-related property crimes, such as graffiti and vandalism".

"Among the provinces, the greatest increase in the overall number of police-reported hate crimes was observed in Ontario, Canada's most populous province, where incidents rose from 612 in 2016 to 1,023 in 2017 (+67%)," Statistics Canada stated. "This increase was largely tied to more hate crimes targeting the Muslim (+207%), Black (+84%) and Jewish (+41%) populations."

Quebec registered a 50 percent rise in hate crimes and a tripling of these offences against Muslims. B.C. posted a more modest increase.

Hate crimes targeting people based on their religion were up by more than 80 percent across the country, including:

* a 151 percent rise against the Muslim population, from 139 to 349;

* and a 63 percent rise against the Jewish population, from 221 to 360.

Statistics Canada

When it came to race or ethnicity, there were 321 police-reported hate crimes against people of African ancestry. That was far higher than the next highest total: 142 against people of Arab or West Asian descent.

There were 63 police-reported hate crimes against people of South Asian ancestry and 61 against those who traced their roots back to East Asia or Southeast Asia.

Forty-six hate crimes were committed against whites, and 31 against people of Indigenous ancestry.

Statistics Canada also reported that there were 204 police-reported hate crimes related to sexual orientation.

The most horrific Canadian hate crime occurred on January 29, 2017, when a gunman killed six worshippers and injured 19 others in a shooting spree at a Quebec City mosque.