Sarnia's police service is putting into perspective a Maclean's magazine report that ranks the city as the second highest in Canada for hate crimes.
Maclean's is reporting that the number of incidents in Sarnia increased from 9.5 per 100,000 people in 2016, to 16.1 in 2017.
Chief Norm Hansen said while the statistics are alarming, residents need not panic.
"We take any hate-related incident very seriously," said Hansen. "We have been wracking our brains for the incidents they're talking about and I can recall a few graffiti incidents. I know that in one incident some swastikas were spray painted on, I think it was mailboxes. Serious, but not assaultive."
Chief Hansen says each tagging incident would be considered one hate crime in the data, which he believes was pulled from the Crime Severity Index which they report to through their records management system.
"We don't have violent crime, at least reported to us, related to hate incidents," said Hansen. "Any time that an officer attends something and it might be deemed as hate-related, whether it be about sexual orientation, religion, race... that's a flag to us and we would follow that up with the detective office."
He said many residents support diversity and encourage inclusion in Sarnia, adding it was evident in February 2017 when over 100 people gathered at city hall to show solidarity with the Muslim community in the wake of a shooting at a Quebec City mosque.
