On a November night, 2015, a window at Masjid Al-Salaam Mosque shattered as an arsonist doused the building with an accelerant and set Peterborough’s only mosque ablaze. The incident was a “wake-up call” for the community, according to Charmaine Magumbe, chairperson for the Community and Race Relations Committee of Peterborough.

The rate of hate crimes in Peterborough have been among the highest in the country, according to Statistics Canada and the Peterborough Police Service. However, hate crime incidents have been decreasing since 2015.

“If you’re looking at the statistics you’d have to say there’s something’s not right,” said Magumbe. “Look at the hate crimes—we are in the top five and it’s consistent. Having said that, there is a good group of people in Peterborough who are inclusive and welcoming.”

According to an analysis of Statistics Canada data, in 2015 Peterborough had the fourth highest rate of hate crimes in Canada at 7.4 crimes per 100,000 people, an 18% drop from the previous year. Data from the Peterborough Police Service, which covers a smaller jurisdiction than the Statistics Canada area, showed that the number of hate-motivated incidents dropped from 25 to 16 between 2015 and 2016. Nine incidents have occurred so far in 2017. Other cities with high hate crime rates include Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge, and Ottawa.

The majority of incidents in Peterborough targeted victims based on race. According to an analysis of 2011 census data, Peterborough is 97% white, and Magumbe said that notions exist among some people to  keep Peterborough a white majority. “People are not used to seeing people of other nationalities,” she said.

Magumbe’s family was the target of a hate crime when her children, the only visibly black students, went to their elementary school to find “I hate Black people, please leave..haha” graffitied onto the building exterior. “My kids came home from school, and they were really hurt. They were in tears,” said Mugambe. After talking with the school principal, the offender was found, and Magumbe held a healing circle.

Despite xenophobic sentiments, Shegufa Merchant, a member of the Muslim community and organizer for the interfaith Abraham Festival, said that not enough attention has been drawn to the people and organizations working to build an inclusive community.

There was an outpour of public support following the 2015 mosque fire, as local churches and synagogues offered their spaces for prayer. Community members quickly raised enough funds to cover the $80,000 worth of damages. “The response of the community far surpassed that hate crime,” said Merchant. “I was so proud to be part of the community at that time.”

Merchant and Magumbe work towards improving race relations and inclusivity in the city. The Abraham Festival celebrates acceptance and tolerance between religious groups, and the Community and Race Relations Committee works to make minorities feel socially included and holds vigils in solidarity against racism. “We need to have discussions as to anti-racism and creating an inclusive society,” said Magumbe.

Race relations will be brought to the forefront next weekend as an anti-immigration rally will be hosted by the Canadian Nationalist Front, an organization that “would like to see the return to Canada’s predominantly White-European and Native-Aboriginal ethnic make-up,” according to their website. A peaceful counter-protest called Chalk Out Hate has been planned in response.