York Regional Police launch Say No to Hate advertising campaign

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 24, 2016
By Jeremy Grimaldi

When two swastika's were carved into the short thick green grass at the Richmond Hill Golf Club an entire community felt the after effects - fear and victimization.

This was just one of the 39 incidents the York Region Jews faced throughout 2014.

They weren't the only ones in York Region targeted - African Canadians faced 15 incidents and Arab Canadians eight. The LGTBQ community was the target of five incidents.

"We, in York Region, (are) probably the most diverse community in the Canada," said York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe. "It's a microcosm of the entire world. We want to make sure everyone feels welcome and safe."

For Jolliffe, this is done through four key areas: awareness, education, action and prevention.

With this in mind, he spent Friday celebrating the launch of York Regional Police's new Say No To Hate campaign in which 400 new anti-hate advertisements were posted in York Region Transit buses throughout the region.

The ads won't just be featured inside the buses, but also the prime real estate on the back of 10 of them, after YRT donated the space to support the message.

The campaign hopes to encourage residents of all creeds, colours and ethnicities to report hate crimes or hate incidents, in which communities have been targeted.

"People see things like a swastika on hydro boxes or bus shelters and think it's just mischief," Jolliffe noted, but he rejects this point of view, explaining that police want to hear about all hate-based incidents, whether they cross the threshold into criminality or not.

"We should all be offended when we see something of this nature," said Insp. Ricky Veerappan. "These are people's core human identities.

“There is a ripple effect - when one person is targeted a whole community is victimized."