Suspected racist incidents spark response from provincial candidates

Ethnic motivation appears to be behind a number of assaults this year in Georgina, and candidates taking part in the Oak Ridges - Markham all candidates' meeting at the King campus of Seneca College last Wednesday have come out against these incidents.

Candidates Phil Bannon, Janice Hagan, Helena Jaczek, Attila Nagy and Doug Ransom took turns reading sentences from a prepared statement expressing outrage at the incidents.

The statement from the candidates read as follows:

"Before we start tonight, we, your candidates, wish to make an important joint statement on an ugly set of incidents that have occurred just north of here and elsewhere in Ontario. We are referring to incidents of racial hatred involving assaults on individuals solely because they were Chinese or Asian. These are hate crimes that go beyond an assault on an individual by another individual. The assailants even have a dirty, racialized name for their act. We commend the police in this community for treating these assaults as hate crimes and we urge all citizens to treat them likewise. Please take time with your children and young people to discuss how hate crimes are an act of violence against our entire community. All of us in York Region and Ontario must take a stand together to show that this behaviour will never be tolerated."