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Weather for Oakville, ON Fri Sat Sun Mon -2° -12° 2° -9° 4° -2° 8° 3° Page 3 Mayor's reaction to budget Earth shifting for women Page 4 www.insidehalton.com dentistoakville.com 905-842-6030 Stay Connected! Friday, March 4, 2016 | 44 pages A Publication of Metroland Media Group Connected to your community - $1.00 incl. tax B R E A K F A S T C L U B Oakville's hate crime stats low in 2015 by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff Oakville Halton District Public School trustees joined members of Halton Food for Thought in serving breakfast to students before classes at Abbey Lane Public School last week. Pictured, serving up the fare, from left, are: Wards 1 and 2 trustee Tracey Ehl Harrison, left, with a bowl of cherry tomatoes; student volunteer Isabella Altiparmakyan, 5, with cereal; and Ward 4 trustee Joanna Oliver with a bowl of scrambled eggs. | photo by Graham Paine ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) Oakville trailed Burlington and Milton in the number of hate crimes dealt with last year by Halton police. Burlington had the largest number in Halton in 2015, with three actual and ve suspected incidents. Milton and Oakville followed, each with two actual and two suspected. The statistics were outlined in a report to the Halton Regional Police Services Board last Thursday (Feb. 25). The report noted Oakville had the highest number -- nine -- of hate/bias related incidents, which involves hostile speech or other disrespectful/discriminatory behaviour that may be motivated by bias, but is not necessarily criminal in nature. Graf ti/vandalism and property damage continues to account for the largest proportion of hate-related occurrences, with 15 in 2015. Police said most appears to be random acts by individuals and not organized groups. When actual hate crime, suspected hate crime and hate/ bias-related incident numbers are tallied, Halton had a total of 33 hate-related occurrences for 2015 -- the lowest number since 2009. Police said there was a direct correlation between several hate incidents/crimes and terrorist attacks around the world and the in ux of refugees into the country. To date, police said, there has been no organized hatebased crime in the region. Police de ne a hate crime as a criminal violation motivated by hate, based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or other similar factor. · HOME · AUTO · LIFE · BUSINESS · AV I AT I O N T H E M A G N E S G RO U P I N C . 1540 Cornwall Rd., Suite #100, Oakville, ON L6J 7W5 Tel: 905-845-9793 Fax: 905-845-9149 www.magnesgroup.com END INSURANCE CONFUSION. For informed decisions that you can feel good about, contact us!