A Canadian provincial politician representing the Ontario riding of Niagara Falls had his advertising sign vandalized with a swastika.
A sign on a bus shelter in front of a supermarket advertising the re-election of MPP Wayne Gates was discovered defaced with a spray painted swastika on July 1, which is Canada Day, the Niagara Falls Review reported.
Gates condemned the vandalism on Twitter, saying: “On Canada Day we have so much to celebrate as a nation and this symbol of hate does not represent our community.”
“It does however represent the continued rise of these concerning actions across Niagara, and we must condemn it,” he said. “I have reached out to the police, and we will be following up until those who spread these hate symbols are caught.”
He also apologized to anyone in the community who saw the hate symbol and added that “our community will not tolerate it.”
“Over the course of the last few years these messages have increased,” he said. “To those that send them I say this, this harassment will never cause me to stand down and I will always fight for the people of our community.”
The incident was the first time the politician has been the victim of swastika vandalism in his nine years as a member of Ontario’s parliament and his previous four years as a city councillor, he told the news outlet.
“I’ve really never seen this kind of hate in our communities. They’ve done some of this other stuff – a lot worse, quite frankly, in St. Catharines, to councillors, to the mayor.”
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)