Anti-South Asian hate skyrockets in Canada: report

Anti-South Asian hate has surged at an alarming rate in Canada, with incidents both online and offline increasing sharply in recent years, a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) shows.

Shocking numbers: Police-reported hate crimes against South Asians in Canada rose by more than 227% between 2019 and 2023, while posts containing anti-South Asian slurs on X increased by over 1,350% from 2023 to 2024, according to the report. In less than two months before the federal election on April 28, more than 2,300 anti-South Asian posts from Canadian extremist accounts generated over 1.2 million engagements. A significant spike followed the April 17 leaders’ debate, where much of the hate targeted former New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh. Diagolon, a white supremacist group, has reportedly played a central role in spreading hate, using slogans like “They have to go back” and “Yeet the Jeets” to harass and incite violence against South Asians.

Driving the news: Researchers link the surge in anti-South Asian hate to growing economic anxieties, particularly around housing and job shortages, with immigrants often scapegoated as the cause. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent pledge to cap immigration — including limiting temporary residents to no more than 5% of the country’s population by 2027 — has been widely seen as a response to these tensions. Steven Rai, a domestic extremism analyst at ISD, explained that extremists are increasingly targeting visible minority groups. “They’re looking at who are the most visible ethnic minorities in Canada, and we see a huge South Asian population there,” Rai told CTV News.

“Great Replacement” conspiracy: Part of the rhetoric stoking hate against South Asians reportedly stems from the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which falsely asserts that increased immigration will drive away white populations. As of 2021, those with South Asian ancestry made up the largest racialized group in Canada, totaling 2,571,400 or 7.1% of the overall population. In a November 2024 article for Tahe Conversation, Reena Kukreja, a professor in global development studies at Queen’s University in Ontario, noted that “the far-right online narrative both in Canada and across Southern Europe is increasingly using the Great Replacement Theory to stir up racial hate against migrants, especially against racialized male migrants.”