So far this year, Jews, LGBT people, and Black people have been hit the hardest

Police say that hate crimes in Ottawa have gone up by almost 24% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same time last year.

Between January 1 and June 30 of this year, 221 such incidents were reported to police, compared to 179 by the same time in 2022, Ottawa police said in a press release on Friday.

This year, 158 cases have been found to be crimes, and 63 have been found to be motivated by hate but not to be crimes. Police said that 23 people have been charged, and one of them has been charged with inciting hatred in public.

So far in 2023, the people who have been attacked the most are Jewish (36 incidents), LGBTQ (32 incidents), and Black (30 incidents). Next are Chinese (eight incidents), and then Muslims (seven incidents).

Some of the crimes are damaging property, making threats, serious assaults, stalking and harassing people illegally, and damaging cultural property.

Police said that 340 reports were filed in 2021, and 377 reports were filed in 2022.

“The statistics are sobering because we know that they only tell part of the story,” Police Chief Eric Stubbs is quoted as saying in Friday’s news release.

“These kinds of events don’t get reported nearly as often as they should, and we know that this data only shows a small part of what people are going through in the community.”