The election signs of two Yellowknife North candidates have been vandalized with racist graffiti.
Bruce Valpy said he first learned about the graffiti from a voter, who alerted him and fellow candidate Shauna Morgan Friday morning.
“I was shocked,” Valpy said.
“I guess it’s the hateful messaging that went on that’s more reflecting of the south than the North, but there it was. That part was disturbing.”
Swastikas were drawn on both signs, and what looked like racial slurs were also written on Morgan’s sign.
After they saw the defaced signs, Valpy said he and Morgan turned them face down so the symbols weren’t visible and reported the incident to the police.
“I didn’t want the voters to think we didn’t care,” Valpy said.
“The matter remains under investigation, but at this time there have been no arrests or charges,” said RCMP via email.
“At this time, other than the use of the swastika symbol, there is nothing to connect this incident to the mischief reported in Fort Smith.”
This is the second time a candidate’s sign has been vandalized with racist graffiti. A sign for Thebacha candidate Jay Macdonald had been vandalized with swastikas and racial slurs just weeks ago.
CBC also reached out to Elections N.W.T. Spokesperson Matthew Mallon did not comment on the case but said the offence violates section 296 of the Elections Act, and is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 or six months in jail.
Valpy said his best guess as to why their signs were targeted was their location: near Trail’s End Crescent with few houses nearby.
Morgan also said she didn’t feel that she had been targeted personally, but called the graffiti “disgusting and disappointing.”
“I don’t feel, myself, that I’m in danger or being targeted,” she said. “But I feel very sad that those kinds of hateful symbols are still being put out there in this community.”
She said she wonders if maybe the person who did the graffiti might have chosen those symbols in order to spark anger and backlash, without fully understanding the “history of hatred and killing that goes along with what these symbols mean.”
“[It] reinforces the need to keep teaching young people in particular what has actually happened throughout history so they know it’s not just something you can do to be edgy and outrageous,” she said.