A majority of Canadian Sikhs say they’re victims of hate, fuelled in part by domestic racism, xenophobia, and transnational repression and disinformation from India, says a first-ever report on anti-Sikh hate released by World Sikh Organization Canada.
However, more than 70% of victims chose not to report hate incidents to authorities, says Understanding and Addressing Anti-Sikh Hate, the first report of its kind in Canada that specifically collected data from members of the Sikh community.
“So that was a stark finding that we had, that people aren’t reporting it, even if it’s happening at such a large scale,” Danish Singh, the president of World Sikh Organization Canada, told New Canadian Media.
Prabhnoor Singh, the president of University of Manitoba’s Students’ Union, remembers facing derogatory remarks on his first day of university, right outside a political science class.
“I did not [report it]… It’s a lack of trust in the reporting system, but also maybe it’s just something that we’re used to, unfortunately, right? And whether it’s, online hate or harassment or anything, it’s just that either we don’t know the avenues that are available for us to report these incidents, or, you know, finding spaces to share about them. But with this report that WSO put together, I’m grateful that we got an opportunity to sort of voice our experiences,” Prabhnoor Singh said.
His views are reflected in the reported data. Eleven per cent of respondents cited a lack of institutional support as a reason for not reporting hate incidents while 8% pointed to the long and complicated process.
Anti-Sikh Hate Report Launch events will be held in Surrey on April 24, Calgary on April 25 and Winnipeg on April 26 in honour of Sikh Heritage Month. They will centre around panel discussions featuring influential Sikh community members including: Ex-NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, Senator Baltej Singh Dhillon, Gurtaj Singh Multani (who fought the landmark case for Sikh students’ right to wear kirpan in schools), artist Ravina Kaur Toor, academics Dr. Sonia Aujla-Bhullar and Dr. Jaspreet Kaur Bal.
First report to survey anti-Sikh hate
The data was collected by WSO at the beginning of last year with funding from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.
“This report combines survey data from over 1,600 Sikh Canadians collected between January 1st and March 1st, 2025 with nationwide town halls to present a detailed picture of how hate, discrimination, and systemic exclusion impact one of Canada’s most visible and vibrant communities,” the report states.
The report also states that it is the “largest data collection on Canadian Sikhs to date.”
Danish Singh said agencies like Statistics Canada don’t break data down in enough detail, so it was decided to collect the information directly from community members themselves.
“It was for the community in terms of collecting this data, because this data is not disaggregated on a national level or any reporting body like Statistics Canada. So the aim was to ask the community ourselves and get this data and try to push for better reporting and more disaggregated reporting around it.”
Axios published an analysis of preliminary FBI data revealing a 3,700% increase in anti-Sikh hate crime in the U.S. in 2025. Danish Singh says that while the FBI has been releasing such statistics for a few years, separating hate crime by religious groups, Canada hasn’t done the same.
“That’s probably what we want to push for in Canada as well, so that we can actually see those numbers and the rise in the FBI report. There’s a lot of crossover between Canada and U.S. as well. So you can imagine how that would look in Canada,” Danish Singh said.
Now that WSO has concrete figures to show growth in anti-Sikh hate, they hope the government would survey these numbers as well.
“Our goal now is we wanted to do this project first, and get this data, hard numbers before we approached Statistics Canada or any government body which we would plan to do so now,” Danish Singh said.
Report’s Findings
Anti Sikh hate is defined in the report as “as prejudice or hostility against individuals who are or are perceived to be Sikh based on their appearance, beliefs, or advocacy related to their identity.”
The report comes at a crucial time as anti-immigrant sentiments are on the rise. Eighty% of respondents in the WSO report felt that anti-Sikh hate has increased in the last five years.
The report also analyses hate experienced based on visibility: More than 500 participants reported experiencing hate based on the colour of their skin, a little less than those on what they wore, and a little more than 400 people reported facing hate over their Sikh name.
Similarly, 89% of French-speaking respondents in Quebec were likely to report experiencing anti-Sikh hate whereas only 65% of the non-French speaking respondents were likely to do the same.
While 54% reported facing hate about their political views, including those who are Khalistan supporters, 22% respondents indicated that the hate primarily came from individuals of the same skin colour, therefore “pointing to a concerning trend of Sikhs being targeted by those of Indian background, likely due to anti-sikh narratives originating from that country,” according to the report.
The report also provided hate faced by intersectional minorities. 97% of women who wear head coverings reported experiencing hate while 77% of those that don’t wear head coverings also experienced hate. This is still higher than the hate experienced by 47% of men who wore visible symbols of Sikhism.
The report suggests policy actions like adopting a formal definition of anti-Sikh hate like M-103 recognized Islamophobia in 2017. Additionally, it suggests integrating more informed training for public servants and allocation funding for awareness programs. It also calls for action to hold social media platforms accountable for unchecked spread of hate.
The report asks for training on Sikh culture for RCMP officers, having sikh community community liaison officers in areas with significant Sikh population and having simple accessible reporting channels with follow ups with victims. WSO also suggests in their report having educational programs that are more inclusive.
Countering Xenophobia
In addition to the positive influence from popular figures like Jagmeet Singh and Baltej Singh Dhillon, Prabhnoor Singh, who will also be on the panel in Winnipeg, thinks these events will help address xenophobia collectively. He says some of his friends from the University of Manitoba’s Muslim Students Association will be joining the event:
“That supports that we’re in this together at the end of the day. Unfortunately, there’s hate against Sikhs, against Muslims, against Jews, you name it, right? But we get to realize that as a society, any sort of hate is not acceptable,”Prabhnoor Singh said.
Aadya Arora is a Vancouver-based journalist interested in covering immigration, labour and women's stories as well as exploring Canadian nation-building practices.