A progressive Jewish summer camp on Gabriola Island has been targeted with despicable antisemitic messages.

Swastikas and other images were painted on the outside wall of Camp Miriam, which has been teaching children about environmental issues and Jewish history for decades.

A camp spokesperson, Kelley Korbin, told CBC News that this may be the first time anything like this has ever happened there.

The images have since been painted over.

The graffiti came to the public's attention as a result of a tweet by the local MLA, Sheila Malcolmson.

Just over 4,000 people live on Gabriola Island, which is a short ferry ride from Nanaimo.

"I'm sickened that anyone on #Gabriola is so hateful," Malcolmson tweeted. "Just happy camper rainbow paint remains!"

https://twitter.com/s_malcolmson/status/1211792283470712834

In 2017—the first year of the Donald Trump presidency—police-reported hate crimes rose 47 percent in Canada over the previous year.

That year, there was a 141 percent increase against Muslims and 63 percent rise against Jews.

The highest number of reported hate crimes in 2017, 360, were directed against the Jewish population.

In 2018, police-reported hate crimes fell 13.2 percent to 1,798, according to Statistics Canada.

This total was still far above the numbers recorded in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Cities that showed the highest rates of hate crimes in 2018 were Hamilton (17.1 per 100,000), Quebec City (11 per 100,000), Ottawa (9.8 per 100,000), and Thunder Bay (8 per 100,000).

Others with relatively high percentages of hate crimes included Guelph (7.8 per 100,000), Vancouver (7.1 per 100,000), Kitchener-Cambridge (6.7 per 100,000), Montreal (6.5 per 100,000), Toronto and London (each 6.4 per 100,000), Victoria (6.1 per 100,000), Gatineau (5.4 per 100,000), and Calgary (5.3 per 100,000).