A racist incident targeting the South Asian community has sparked outrage in Kelowna.
RCMP say the graffiti found in the Rutland area on Monday is now being investigated as possible hate crime.
Sometime Sunday night into Monday morning, the back side of the Rutland Arena was tagged with a racial remark targeting the community.
“It was kind of surprising to me, I never expected this will happen in Kelowna,” Ash Mohan, a member of the Kelowna Hindu Society told Global News.
Calling them “ugly words,” Mohan said he’s pleased the City of Kelowna promptly cleaned up racially-motivated graffiti at the civic facility, but wishes it didn’t happen in the first place.
Mohini Singh, a community leader and city councillor, calls the message divisive in a community that prides itself on being inclusive.
“This kind of an attitude is absolutely disgusting,” Singh said.
“It was very, very upsetting because this is a multicultural country. We are a very multicultural society. Kelowna is growing in its diversity and we have worked very hard to embrace that diversity and something like this has no place, no place in Kelowna.
Kelowna RCMP said an investigation is underway and that these types of racially motivated incidents are taken very seriously.
Police are asking anyone with information or video pertaining to the incident to contact them.
There is a CCTV camera above the area where the vandalism occurred, and police have released descriptions of two suspects.
The first suspect is described as a Caucasian male wearing green camo print pants, a black jacket, grey t-shirt, grey and purple baseball cap with white writing and boots.
The second suspect is described as a Caucasian male with a brown beard and moustache, wearing
Kelowna’s mayor said the incident does not reflect the city.
“We do not, myself or any of Council, condone any type of hateful messaging that happens within this community,” Tom Dyas said.
“I know that Kelowna and what our council is looking for is a safe, respectful and welcoming community, and I know that that is what we continually strive for, and it’s what we’re working towards doing with all our initiatives.”
One initiative that Mohan thinks is long overdue to help combat racism overall is more education on multiculturalism in schools.
“There should be more more exposure of their ethnicity, their culture, to the other people, so they understand each other,” he said.
That type of education could prove timely, especially as police say racist vandalism of this type is on the rise in recent years across B.C. and Canada.