Police looking for witnesses to incident at Kanata church
Posted May 6, 2026 01:42:26 PM.
Last Updated May 6, 2026 01:43:47 PM.
Officials are hoping people will come forward to discuss what they saw during church on Sunday morning in Kanata.
According to a press release, a person entered the place of worship, damaged an item on a high altar and shouted profanities before leaving the area in a vehicle. Police were told that no one inside the building interacted with the suspect and no weapons were reported.
The church is on Rothesay Drive, and the incident happened around 9:20 a.m.
The Ottawa police hate and bias crime unit is looking for witnesses to come forward who have not yet spoken to officers. Anyone with information is asked to call the unit at 613-236-1222.
Hate crime a concern in Ottawa
The Ottawa-Gatineau census metropolitan area has the highest police-reported hate crime rate per 100,000 people compared to all other major cities, data from Statistics Canada shows.
The report released says the number of police-reported hate crimes stayed steady in 2024 across the country, after sharp increases in prior years.
StatCan says there were 4,882 hate crimes in Canada in 2024, a one per cent increase over the previous year. That followed a 34 per cent rise between 2022 and 2023 and after the number of police-reported hate crimes more than doubled since 2018.
In Ottawa, this means the rate per 100,000 people spiked in 2023 at 30.9 per cent. In 2024, that dropped slightly to 27.7 per cent, similar to 2022’s rate.
