A Peterborough Police investigation into the plastering of a white nationalist group's posters in downtown Peterborough has determined that the "posters do not meet the threshold to be deemed a hate crime."

The Examiner reported that ID Canada posters were posted in late December on bus shelters and electrical boxes. More of them were posted earlier this month, prompting city police to investigate, and others were then posted earlier this week along the Otonabee River Trail.

ID Canada is an identarianist group that seeks to protect Canada's "identity" from migration and considers "diversity is in fact our greatest weakness."

City police announced Thursday afternoon that while the posters are not a hate crime, people that see "potentially concerning content being posted" are urged to call city police immediately at 705-876-1122 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca.

"Do not assume police are aware of it or assume someone else has reported it," a release from city police stated.

In 2017, city police officers began handing out NoH8 cards which explain what a hate crime or hate incident is and what to do if a person is a victim or witness to a hate incident, with phone numbers of various agencies.

The NoH8 cards are available in the lobby of the police station on Water Street.

"We will continue to work with our community partners to ensure our community is a place where all residents feel safe and welcome," the city police release stated.

Some of the posters spotted this week say Defend the Family - a sentiment that Rick Lambert of the Rainbow Service Organization called "narrow and distorted."

Families in Peterborough and in Canada are "varied," he said, and the poster's message "runs contrary to our constitutional rights and freedoms."

"We need to work together to respect, value and welcome that diversity and challenge and denounce those who want to do otherwise," Lambert wrote in an email.

A spokesman for PFLAG Canada, which has a chapter in Peterborough, stated this week that the posters "in no way define Peterborough."

"The community should be recognized for celebrating its differences," wrote Omid Razavi, communications director for PLFAG Canada, in an email.

When the posters first went up, Mayor Diane Therrien told The Examiner that "hateful views are not acceptable."

Charmaine Magumbe, chairperson of the Community Race Relations Committee, also responded by telling The Examiner that she's concerned about "anti-immigrant sentiment" brewing in Peterborough.

"We need more to be done beyond just removing these posters," Magumbe said.

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Meanwhile the city's public works department removed racist graffiti on the Otonabee River footbridge behind the Holiday Inn Waterfront last week after The Examiner reported it had been sprayed on the bridge.

- with files from Joelle Kovach, Examiner Staff Writer