Public spaces top location for reported hate incidents: HARRC report

A new report from the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre (HARRC) has found that public spaces accounted for the largest percentage of reported hate incidents. 

The annual community report outlines the incidents of hate it has received over the past year.

The centre’s executive director, Lyndon George, says the data doesn’t account for all hate incidents in the community and that there is much more the city can do to help. 

“We’ve seen our reports go up not a significant amount but nonetheless each report we know is an incident of hate in our community and our goal here is to also make sure we bring those numbers down and we’re trying to do that with community,” George says.

“Overall, what I would say to the community is that we know that hate goes underreported … we need to start tracking the amount of hate symbols that are appearing in our community.”

“We want to make sure that the city is coordinating with its own resources to be able to say if we’re seeing a hate symbol in a park, on a park bench, they’re recording it as well, reporting and sharing it with police, sharing it with community, making sure that communities that use that space are also supported, that the staff who see it are aware of what these hate symbols are,” George says.

READ MORE: Hamilton police report 12% spike in hate crimes in 2025