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On Oct 15, the government of Ontario opened this year’s applications for the Anti-Hate Security and Prevention Grant Program (AHSP), but religious organizations say the funding is not enough to address the root issue of hate and violent incidents.
“One of the main issues is that the funding is insufficient to properly secure the Jewish community,” said Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada.
According to their press release, the Ontario government is investing $12.7 million into the AHSP to strengthen security measures and prevent hate-related incidents. Eligible organizations can receive a one-time grant between $2,500 to $10,000. The program started in 2021, as an effort to alleviate turmoil experienced by cultural and religious organizations and according to their own tracking, have paid out $110 million to help support more than 6,900 institutions.
But still, some beneficiary organizations are not satisfied with the funding provided and believe they end up at a loss.
“Our houses of worship, our Jewish communal organizations are having to spend far more than what we’ve received through the federal and provincial government in order to secure our community,” said Robertson. “We simply need more resources.”
The latest data from Statistics Canada show that so far in 2026 there have been 2,103 police reported hate crimes in Canada. The majority were reported in Ontario, at 864 incidents.
“We always have a lot of people from our community who say they could always use more funding when it comes to increasing their security,” said Steven Zhou from the National Council of Canadian Muslims.
Zhou said more funding would help increase safety in mosques, such as installing more security cameras around the building in order to deter acts of vandalism and destruction of property.
In a 2025 Statistics Canada report, police-reported hate crimes, by detailed motivation listed 204 incidents against Muslims took place, 788 against Jewish people, and 36 against Catholics. Another 534 incidents were motivated by sexual orientation.
The AHSP encourages that funds be used to train staff and implement private security. However, Robertson said that for B’nai Brith this is still not enough and that the program should be expanded to include paid police-duty and professional security personnel.
“When you’re facing the risk of armed attack with firearms, which is the reality of Ontario’s Jewish community, you need properly trained armed personnel to protect our community,” said Robertson.
“We believe that this gap must be filled in order to ensure that funding can be used as effectively as possible and to meet the security needs of the community,” he said.
One of the purposes of the AHSP funding is to reinforce cyber security upgrades and technological updates.
“Frivolous judgements are passed online for the sake of venting frustration and [ridiculing images] for the sake of entertainment,” said Anand Iyer, a Hindu community leader in Brampton. “The Hindu faith has faced a lot of mockery online,” he said.
The Hindu Post, a Hindu nationalist news and commentary website, reported on six incidents of vandalism, theft and hate-related incidents against temples in 2022 in Brampton and Mississauga in the span of 10 days.
“Our main concerns always remain the safety of property and lives of devotees, in such blatant incidents,” said Iyer. “It’s always the innocent who gets the brunt of such vile actions.”
Iyer said he continues to see targeted hate-crime incidents against the Hindu faith in the last three years and worries for the security of community members.
“Devotees and workers of the temple are fearing for their safety and have stopped visiting temples,” said Iyer.
Besides religious organizations, eligible groups for the Ontario grant funding also include Indigenous and 2SLGBTQQIA+ groups.
Organizations interested in applying for the grant have until Nov 12 at 5 p.m. to apply.
Reporter, OTR, F2026.
Reporter, OTR, F2026.
