RCMP in Alberta say they are investigating a complaint about a person who was reportedly outside a business in Grimshaw, a small community in the province’s northwest, wearing a white hood over his head.
A picture that was circulating on social media Saturday appeared to show a man wearing a hood with eye holes and a point at the top that looks like ones worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
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Const. Jennifer Brewer says one complaint was received about the incident, alleged to have occurred on Friday, and that police are still investigating.
Grimshaw Mayor Bob Regal posted a response to the picture after some people alleged that Grimshaw is a racist community, which Regal denies.
Regal said in an interview he hasn’t heard of any similar incidents, and has no idea who the person in the photo is, noting that even though Grimshaw is small, it serves a large outlying area.
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Opposition NDP leader Rachel Notley took to Twitter, calling the incident “vile and disgusting.”
“Hate has no place in our province. We must do everything we can to root out and call out racism in order to combat it in every one of its forms,” Notley wrote.
Regal also condemned the incident.
“Is it appropriate? No,” he said.
Brewer said she did not have information on what laws may have been broken, saying that would be part of the investigation.
Grimshaw is about 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
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