At least 16 more posters promoting a white nationalist group were seen downtown on Friday morning and Peterborough Police say they're investigating.

"There is no place in our community for intolerance," city police spokesperson Lauren Gilchrist said in an email.

Officers photographed and retrieved posters on Friday and were investigating to determine whether posting them is a crime, Gilchrist said - and anyone with information is asked to call police.

The red-and-white posters promote ID Canada, an identitarianist group (meaning it strives to protect Canada's "identity" from migration).

"Canada was never meant to be a melting pot of third-world migration," states the ID Canada website. "Diversity is in fact our greatest weakness."

It's the second time these posters have been spotted downtown lately: on Dec. 28, at least five posters were pasted to bus shelters and electrical boxes. They've since been removed.

But the posters were back in greater numbers on Friday. Mayor Diane Therrien repeated her earlier stance on the matter.

"The city takes these incidents seriously and hateful views are not acceptable," she wrote in a text message.

On Friday the posters were seen on electrical boxes, light poles and bus shelters.

Some were at the entrances of Peterborough Square and others were in the bus shelters at the main transit station on Simcoe Street.

They're all applied to smooth surfaces with glue and therefore difficult to remove.

ID Canada is considered a hate group by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

Although group's website says there are nine chapters of ID Canada across the country, it doesn't list the cities where those chapters are located.

There's a concerning "anti-immigrant sentiment" in Peterborough, said Charmaine Magumbe, the chair of the Community Race Relations Committee.

Some citizens want to adapt the ideas of U.S. President Donald Trump and "Make Canada White Again," she wrote in a message to The Examiner.

"We need more to be done beyond just removing these posters," she wrote.

That's why the Race Relations Committee is planning a series of round-table discussions in 2020 where racism in the city will be addressed, she added.

"I have zero tolerance for any type of hatred - the story of Canada is a story of diversity," Coun. Dean Pappas, whose ward includes the downtown, said Friday.

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Coun. Stephen Wright wrote that he was "profoundly disappointed" to see the reappearance of the posters on Friday.

"This organization's ideology does not define our values as Canadians or residents of Peterborough," he wrote in a text.

Town Ward Coun. Kemi Akapo told The Examiner the city's public works department has been notified to have the posters removed.

"I am saddened and frustrated to see these posters continuing to be put up in our city. These hateful posters and this harmful rhetoric have no place in our city and we will not tolerate them," Akapo stated.

"I, along with the city, are working to ensure that Peterborough is a safe and welcoming place for all residents. While we can certainly have differences of opinion, hateful speech will not be tolerated."

Meanwhile, Peterborough recently joined a national coalition of cities devoted to curbing racism.

In a ceremony at city hall on Dec. 10, Therrien signed the paperwork to have Peterborough join the Canadian Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities.

There was meaning behind that declaration, she said after the first posters were spotted in December, "and we will continue to work against racism and hatred."

Anyone with any information about these posters can call city police at 705-876-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca

joelle.kovach

@peterboroughdaily.com