The Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI) is speaking out against the hateful graffiti that was sprayed on homes and vehicles on Woodlawn Court in Dundas yesterday.

The perpetrators spray painted symbols and words with hate/bias overtones, including anti-Semitic and anti-Black sentiments.

“We are troubled by what appears to be a growing number of reports of hate/bias motivated incidents across the community,” said Evelyn Myrie, executive director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion. “Since April of last year, we have been made aware of six hate motivated incidents in Hamilton.”

Hamilton police define a hate crime as a criminal offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by hate or bias against a person’s race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, age or gender. Yesterday’s incident of property damage gives the police cause to investigate this as a possible hate crime.

Hate-motivated incidents have a stronger impact on victims than ‘ordinary’ crimes, since reports show that they send a message to entire communities, said Myrie. The message is that these communities should be denied the right to be part of society. Hate incidents instill fear far beyond the geographic boundaries of a town, city or province and have the potential to lead to larger scale conflicts.

“We support the efforts of Hamilton Police Services as they search for the perpetrators,” said Myrie. “They must be brought to bear the full brunt of the law. We know how traumatizing this is for the victims, who woke up …to find their property damaged with hateful graffiti. We want them to know that people across the city are working hard to eradicate this kind of unacceptable behavior. It’s behavior that should not be tolerated in society.”

Milé Komlen, chair of HCCI’s governing council. noted the organization was formed because of a hate crime that shocked the city to its core in 2001, when vandals attacked and burned the Hindu Samaj Temple.

“Today, more than decade later, we continue to face the ugly reminder that hatred and ignorance continue to exist in our city,” said Komlen.

HCCI recently released Stop Hate Crimes, a community resource document designed to help Hamiltonians recognize, report and prevent hate-motivated incidents. The resource is available in English and seven other languages, and can be downloaded from HCCI’s website at www.hcci.ca.

Formed in 2006, HCCI is a non-profit organization working to create a united community that respects diversity, practices equity, and speaks out against discrimination.