Windsor police are investigating, but have not yet determined if a disturbing leaflet sent to the Windsor Jewish Community Centre is a hate crime.
Sergeant Steve Betteridge says the investigation is only in the earliest stages after the leaflet was received on Friday, according to the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies.
"Every single matter like that is very unique. Every one is case by case, and we follow the evidence," says Betteridge. "When they're investigated, we have to determine, number one if there's been an offence. If there's been an offence, obviously tied into that, what the offence is. It could be some form of harassment. It could be some form of threat. It could be some form of hate crime, or it could be a real nuisance, but not an actual Criminal Code offence."
He says it could take investigators some time to make those determinations.
Section 319 of the Criminal Code defines a public incitement of hatred as "Everyone who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace." A person found guilty of inciting hatred could face up to two years in jail.
The centre says the leaflet, which borrows from medieval images, calls for the expulsion of Jews.
Betteridge says police are not called on to investigate incidents of hate mail often, but when they are, they take it very seriously.
The incident in Windsor follows others last year where synagogues in numerous Canadian cities received a leaflet that said "Jewry must perish" with a swastika in the middle of a Star of David.
The centre asks anyone with information about the latest incident to contact police.
