Police are investigating after three election signs were defaced with racist graffiti earlier this week.
In each case, an anti-Arab message was scrawled in black ink on a People’s Party of Canada campaign sign. The messages were printed between the candidate picture and the lettering on the sign. In one instance, a length of pipe was lodged into the candidate’s photo.
Characterizing his reaction as “shocked and disappointed,” PPC candidate Azmairnin Jadavji stated in a press release the messages verged on being a hate crime.
“Though it is sad, such hateful graffiti is not going to discourage me from doing my job,” he stated.
The incident emphasizes the need for “co-ordinated and funded community responses to acts of hate,” according to a release from the North Shore Multicultural Society.
“We need to protect our public spaces to be free of hate, harm and fear.Ěý Irrespective of perspective and point of view, all people in Canada have the right not to be targeted by the violence of racism, such as anti-Blackness, Islamophobia and other types of hate,” the organization stated.
Between 2014 and 2018, the number of reported hate crimes in Canada increased from 1,295 to 1,798.
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