OPS seeing increase in hate motivated incidents towards Jewish community

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) is seeing a rise in hate motivated incidents targeting Ottawa’s Jewish community in recent weeks.

Eric Stubbs, chief of the OPS, made the revelation at the Ottawa Police Services Board (OPSB) meeting on Monday, Oct. 23.

Stubbs noted that since the start of the Hamas-Israel war, the OPS has seen 17 hate-motivated incident reports targeting the city’s Jewish community.

“We are responding to these events as they are received,” said Stubbs. “We encourage anyone who witnesses or experiences such incidents to report them to the police. We will prosecute those who commit hate crimes to the full extent of the law.”

Stubbs noted that the OPS has also been increasing presence at Jewish institutions across Ottawa and in the city’s downtown core, where many demonstrations have taken place over the last few weeks.

“Thousands of people have demonstrated in Ottawa over the last two weeks in response to this war,” he said. “At times, the number of people marching or demonstrating have been a challenge for police. But, I would like to thank those who have peacefully demonstrated in Ottawa. We expect that assemblies will continue and police will attend these events to protect the safety and security of our communities.”