The Ontario Provincial Police are investigating after a Pride flag was allegedly stolen from the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum and subsequently destroyed.
Provincial police responded to a report on Wednesday indicating the entire flag pole next to the textile museum on Rosamond Street in Mississippi Mills, Ont., had gone missing.
The pole was found undamaged in nearby Gemmill Park, according to reports, but the Pride flag attached to it had been torn apart.
The OPP said its initial investigation suggests the incident occurred between 2 and 2:30 early Wednesday morning.
OPP say an “older model” blue car was seen in the area at the time and surveillance video appears to show two young women holding the flag in the park.
Lizz Thrasher, chair of the museum’s board of directors, penned a piece in the local Millstone News on Thursday expressing her disappointment in the act of vandalism.
“Come on Mississippi Mills — we are better than this,” she wrote.
Thrasher went on to reinforce the museum’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity and expressed that vandals do not speak for the attitudes of residents in the Almonte area within the town of Mississippi Mills.
“We have always been proud to be a part of Almonte, and the act of a very small minority will not change that,” Thrasher wrote.
“This act of vandalism makes us sad and wary, but we will not give up. Our commitment remains and we will continue to work for diversity.”
A GoFundMe campaign set up by Jonathan Tam to foot the bill for a replacement Pride flag had raised more than $1,000 as of Friday morning, more than four times higher than its initial $250 goal.
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