Toronto police are investigating after antisemitic graffiti was located outside of schools in three areas of the city, Global News reported on Wednesday.
In a tweet Wednesday afternoon, Toronto Police Chief James Ramer said the force received three reports of antisemitic graffiti outside schools in three different divisions.
“We are investigating and our specialized Hate Crime Unit is engaged,” Ramer said, adding that hate crimes are a “top priority” for the Toronto police “and we are committed to combatting hate in our city.”
In an email to Global News, a spokesperson for the force, Const. Alex Li, said the incidents are being treated as “hate-motivated.”
Li said officers received a report at around 8:30 a.m., on Wednesday regarding antisemitic language on the outside of Central Technical School.
Hours later, at 10:05 a.m., Li said the force received another report of antisemitic language on the outside of Rosedale Heights School of the Arts.
A few minutes later at 10:20 a.m., Li said the force received another report that antisemitic language was found on a container on the grounds of Malvern Collegiate Institute.
Li said that due to the similarities in each incident, investigators are “exploring whether they are linked.”
The graffiti incidents follow a series of antisemitic incidents in Toronto schools in recent weeks.
At the beginning of February, students performed a Nazi salute and depicted the swastika in front of students at the Charles H. Best Middle School, located in the Bathurst Manor neighborhood of North York, which has a significant Jewish population.
A week later, students at the Valley Park Middle School performed a Nazi salute in front of a Jewish teacher.
A similar incident occurred last week, when students at Pleasant Public School in North York performed the Hitler salute in class, this time targeting a Jewish teacher in a Grade 6 classroom.
Canada has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years.
Last March, Statistics Canada released its annual survey of police-reported hate crimes which found that Jews have remained by far the most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada.
The Statistics Canada report found that there were 1,946 police-reported hate crimes in Canada in 2019, up 7 percent from a year earlier.
Last April, B’nai Brith Canada released its Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which found that antisemitic incidents in Canada have increased 18 percent since 2019.
The study affirms that Canadian Jews remain the most targeted religious group in the country.