Police chief discusses growing concerns of hate incidents in Waterloo Region

Another incident of racially motivated hate has been brought to the attention of both the public and local police, with the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) saying it’s a trend that’s heading in the wrong direction.

The latest incident comes as an individual posted a video to the social media platform ‘X,’ detailing their personal account of racial hate in Waterloo Region. It showed an angered woman shouting various obscenities towards the individual going as far as to say “You aren’t Canadian,” and “Go back to India.”

“I’m on a national call every couple weeks with leaders coast to coast and we see it in the data,” said Chief of the Waterloo Regional Police Service, Mark Crowell. “Hate incidents and hate crimes have multiplied exponentially across this country.”

In the video, the individual could be heard trying to reason with the woman as to why she’s so angry, adding that he is a Canadian citizen who’s also fluent in French, to which she responded “Your parents aren’t Canadian, your grandma is not Canadian.”

“We’re living in a very polarized world. There is definitely attitudes, anti-newcomer, anti-immigrant sentiment,” said Crowell. “There are policy issues related to sexual identity, racism is nothing new. We’re seeing it play out in our communities.”

Crowell said there are detailed numbers to draw from, which point to the growing concerns nationally and also locally in Waterloo Region.

“There was some StatsCan reporting looking at last year, and what has struck people recently is where this community stands compared to others. We have the fifth highest reported hate-motivated crimes across Canada from an accrual standpoint.”

Crowell also said that the community isn’t just amongst the leaders in reported hate-motivated crimes, but is actually the number one region in key areas as well.

“We actually have the distinction of having the highest number per 100,000, so the most number of police-reported hate-motivated crimes in Waterloo Region compared to other communities. It speaks to some silver lining where there’s faith in institutions to report to entities such as police, but it also speaks to the work to be done.”

“We need to create region-wide education, prevention language, and assistance to victims.”

He continued to say incidents like this will only continue until something is properly done on a more unified level, saying it’s an area that needs more general attention across the board.

“There is a reporting mechanism that we need to create to get everybody feeding into one entity,” said Crowell. “We need to create region-wide education, prevention language, and assistance to victims. We can’t be doing this in silos.”