Racial slurs found on sign directing visitors to Viola Desmond’s headstone

Halifax police are investigating after the Camp Hill Cemetery sign directing visitors to Viola Desmond’s headstone was found damaged, with three “highly offensive racial slurs” written on it.

Police say the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

Desmond was a Nova Scotia civil rights pioneer and businesswoman. On Nov. 8, 1946, she was arrested after refusing to leave a whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., in an incident that has since become one of the most high-profile cases of racial discrimination in Canadian history.

0:38 Viola Desmond tribute among murals being added to Mulgrave Park in Halifax

Her headstone stands in the cemetery on Summer Street in Halifax.

Halifax police are asking anyone with information on the racist incident to contact them.

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“Police would like to reinforce that such actions within our community are unacceptable, and anyone planning to initiate or copy such actions can expect to face serious consequences,” says a news release.

The writing has since been removed from the sign.