Vandals slashed tires on three vehicles and left notes containing racist slurs in front of a Laotian-Canadian family's new home in Ottawa's west end on the weekend.

"I was sick to my stomach and I'm still on an emotional roller-coaster right now," Sounantha Chanthapanya said on Monday, a day after her mother discovered the damaged vehicles and the notes left on their windshields in their new Kanata neighbourhood.

Sounantha Chanthapanya, 28, said her family hadn't had any problems in the neighbourhood.
(CBC)

Ottawa police said their hate crimes unit is helping investigate the attack, which apparently took place on Saturday night.

That night, Chanthapanya, 28, her 66-year-old mother, Chanmany Chanthapanya, her 37-year-old brother, Souryachack Chanthapanya, and Souryachack's wife, Chantavisouk Chanthapanya held a housewarming barbecue with relatives and friends.

They were celebrating moving into the new home on McLennan Way earlier that day. The family had finally bought its own place after years of renting nearby.

The next morning, Sounantha Chanthapanya said she woke up to the sound of her mother yelling.

She went down to see what the commotion was, and found that the expensive new winter tires had been slashed on her own Honda Civic, her mother's Kia Spectra and the Toyota Highlander belonging to some relatives visiting from the U.S. The licence plates from the Highlander and the Spectra had been removed and dumped in the bushes.

Notes had been left on all three windshields.

Vandals slashed the tires on three cars in front of the family's new home. They also removed some of the licence plates and threw them in the bushes.
(CBC)

"On my car it said, 'Welcome to the neighbourhood, you dirty chink,'" Chanthapanya said.

Sheets of paper scrawled with similar racist slurs, some containing obscenities, were found beneath the wipers of the other two cars.

Chanthapanya said her family has been in Canada since 1982 and hasn't experienced any other incidents like this.

Their new neighbourhood seemed nice, she added.

"We've had neighbours that have come over and say hi to us and welcome us to the neighbourhood and we didn't expect this to happen," she said.

Neighbour Pat Milks said he was shocked by such an incident in a community he described as diverse.

"There's never been anything of any sort like this ever before that we can think of that's ever happened," said Milks.

Kanata Ward city councillor Peggy Feltmate also thought it was unusual.

"We've certainly had incidents of vandalism, but the hateful remarks …[are] just not heard of," she said.

She added that she will ask the Chanthapanyas' neighbours if they are interested in setting up a neighbourhood watch program.