Two Hamilton businesses vandalized with white supremacist graffiti

Surveillance video from Canada Day weekend shows a masked man sprawling graffiti across the glass railing of a dental office in Hamilton.

This is the second time in July hateful, white supremacist graffiti has been written on a Hamilton business.

This time, a dental office near Gage Park.

“I had no idea what it was, I had no idea the significance of it,” says Dr. Brian Yim the Dentist and Owner of Sagewood Dental.

At first glance, it might just look like some numbers on glass but for anyone who knows what 14/88 means, it’s a message of hate.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network considers it a veiled hate message calling it a fascist slogan and that 88 is a numerical stand-in for “heil Hitler”.

“We started to realize this says (has) a lot more seriousness to it, because we have a very multicultural team,” says Dr. Yim.

The entire incident has left Dr. Yim and his team, highly concerned and taking additional precautions to stay safe.

“We started thinking about buddy systems, getting to the cars, and then when Hamilton police started coming, it really started to set in,” Dr. Yim says.

The local councillor for the area says she’s not taking this incident lightly.

“Experiencing something like graffiti on your business is a discouragement for a business owner, but when it has this underpinning of racism and hate, it’s that much more traumatic to experience,” says Nrinder Nann, Hamitlon Ward 3 city councillor.

That same weekend, another similar incident also occurred, at a black-owned catering business on Barton Street where hateful, white supremacist graffiti was left on its doors.

WATCH MORE: Hamilton caterer won’t be shaken by racist graffiti found on business door

Police shared an image of the suspect they believe to be involved.

Experts warn that official stats on hate crime may not capture the full picture.

“The most recent useful numbers that we have is a very large survey that was done by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, which found that about one in six Canadians said quote ‘they definitely or possibly have been the target of a hate incident in the past year,’” says Evan Balgord from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

Balgord says the current laws in place aren’t enough to discourage incidents like these from happening.

“The short answer is, it’s not really a deterrent, the punishments are rather minor, and the bigger problem is that they’re just not pursued, and pursued successfully to be any kind of deterrent by law enforcement,” Balgord says.

“The City of Hamilton understands that hate incidents, such as hateful graffiti, can cause emotional harm and fear in targeted communities,” said Marnie Cluckie, the city manager for the City of Hamilton.

“There is no place for hate in Hamilton. We value inclusion and diversity and are committed to fostering a welcoming city where everyone feels safe, supported and has a strong sense of belonging,” said Cluckie.

“We need to do better than responding with just statements that say ‘hate has no place in our city’ across the board, we need to do better than just using that as our response because it clearly is in place, it clearly is something that has a place here, and we need to ask why,” says Caitlin Craven from the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion.

The city says if graffiti is found and it’s hate-motivated, it should be reported to Hamilton Police Service by calling 905-546-4925 or online at: hamiltonpolice.on.ca/report-hate-crime-online.

Residents can also report and seek support through the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre at https://www.harrc.ca/reporting-form.

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