Windsor's Sarah Mushtaq is worried about international students coming back to town in the wake of hate-crime vandalism on a vehicle in Windsor this week.

"It's unfortunate that it happened, but in a way I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner," said Mushtaq.

Mushtaq tweeted following news of the vandalism expressing concern.

"International students, they're leaving their support system behind. They're coming to a new place, a new city. They're usually expecting this place is more welcoming and they're not realizing this [kind of thing] is a reality on the ground,"said Mushtaq.

According to Mushtaq, many international students might not be aware of what support systems are in place for them — and also pointed out that Islamophobic hate crimes target not just Muslims, but those perceived to be Muslim.

"Relatively speaking, we're fortunate to live in a welcoming city," said Mushtaq. "But [hate] exists here. Although we might be fairly diverse and fairly welcoming, we also have this pocket where we need to address these negative incidents."

The more visibly diverse our region gets, the more we'll see of this. I hope local leaders squash any of this rhetoric in the spaces they frequent, and support + champion anti-racism education, policies and initiatives in our area. - @SarahMushMush/Twitter

Mushtaq said police response so far has been great.

"In other jurisdictions we've sometimes seen a reluctance to call [things like this] a hate crime," said Mushtaq. "Our local police has done that from the get-go, which is wonderful."

More response from other local leadership would go a long way, Mushtaq said.

"It does start from leadership, that really sets the tone in the city," said Mushtaq. "It's time now to call out the racist uncle and say 'That's not okay.'"