Kelowna council candidate Indy Dhial was shocked Saturday when he found one of his election signs had been not only knocked down, but also defaced with racist commentary.
Written in dark black ink on the back of his campaign sign were the words, “Nobody cares about Arabs/East Indians.”
“I realized that this type of stuff isn’t OK,” Dhial said. “We need to help people understand that everything we do as a community affects everybody, including our youth.”
Incumbent Coun. Mohini Singh heard about Dhial’s sign and said in the four elections she’s participated in, vandalism has become commonplace.
She has been targeted in the past, though she didn’t think it was racially motivated like this was.
“We have work to do,” Singh said.
“But I do want the community to know that the multicultural aspect of Kelowna is growing, we need to embrace it, we need to focus more on inclusivity. This is so wrong, this creates divisions in society, and I don’t want to see that for our community. We are way better than this.”
Both Singh and Dhial say they have been driving around picking up damaged campaign signs and ask that residents consider doing the same.
“It is a bit disheartening, but we know we’re here, we’ve got to keep positive, and we’ve got to keep doing things to create positive change,” Dhial said.
Dhial, who is an early childhood educator, said he will continue to teach children that diversity is important, and that hate will never win.