GDI_Canada: Hate Speech and Bigotry_FINAL

The report documents a systemic and strategic environment of online hate in Canada, where marginalized groups—including Indigenous, Black, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, 2SLGBTQIA+, and women—are depicted as threats to national identity. It identifies a network of domestic actors, such as Rebel News and Jordan Peterson, and foreign state-linked entities from Russia, China, and India that amplify these narratives. Key findings highlight the use of 'reverse racism' tropes to oppose equity efforts, the persistence of colonial tropes against Indigenous peoples, and the weaponization of 'gender ideology' to target 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. The document also notes a dangerous feedback loop where online hate mirrors and accelerates real-world hate crimes, which have more than doubled since 2018.

• Online hate speech in Canada disproportionately targets marginalized groups, with significantly higher exposure rates for racialized Canadians (50%), 2SLGBTQIA+ people (58%), and newly arrived immigrants (67%) compared to the general population (41%).
• There is a strong correlation between digital hate and physical violence; hate crimes in Canada rose by 169% overall since 2018, with anti-Muslim hate crimes increasing by 94% and antisemitic incidents by 71% in 2023.
• Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) operations from Russia, China, and India exploit domestic divisions. Russia's Sputnik and RT have specifically repurposed narratives about residential schools to delegitimize Canadian institutions.
• Anti-Indigenous narratives frequently employ 'digital denialism' regarding residential schools and frame Indigenous rights as 'special treatment' or 'reverse discrimination' against white Canadians.
• Anti-2SLGBTQIA+ discourse is characterized by the 'groomer conspiracy' and the use of pseudoscience to attack gender-affirming care, often framing transgender identities as a 'gender ideology' or 'transgenderism'.
• Anti-Black narratives often rely on the denial of systemic racism and the erasure of the history of slavery in Canada to delegitimize equity-based policies, which are then reframed as 'reverse racism'.
• Islamophobic narratives frequently portray Islam as fundamentally incompatible with Canadian values and use Europe as a cautionary example of 'cultural collapse' to justify restricting immigration.
• Antisemitic disinformation utilizes coded proxies like George Soros and the Rothschild family to evoke tropes of secret global control, while Holocaust denial persists through the glorification of Ernst Zündel.
• Misogynistic rhetoric is driven by the 'manosphere' (including Incels and MGTOW), which portrays masculinity as 'under siege' and frames feminism as a 'Communist depopulation program' or a threat to Western civilization.
• Anti-immigrant narratives have evolved to depict immigration as a geopolitical weapon or a coordinated conspiracy, such as the 'Great Replacement' theory, aimed at destroying the white population.

APA

Global Disinformation Index (n.d.). GDI_Canada: Hate Speech and Bigotry_FINAL. https://www.disinformationindex.org/files/GDI_Canada_Hate_Speech_and_Bigotry_August2025.pdf

Chicago

Global Disinformation Index. GDI_Canada: Hate Speech and Bigotry_FINAL. n.d. https://www.disinformationindex.org/files/GDI_Canada_Hate_Speech_and_Bigotry_August2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Disinformation Index |title=GDI_Canada: Hate Speech and Bigotry_FINAL |url=https://www.disinformationindex.org/files/GDI_Canada_Hate_Speech_and_Bigotry_August2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globaldisinformationindexndgdicanada, author = {{Global Disinformation Index}}, title = {{GDI\_Canada: Hate Speech and Bigotry\_FINAL}}, institution = {Global Disinformation Index}, url = {https://www.disinformationindex.org/files/GDI_Canada_Hate_Speech_and_Bigotry_August2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }