The welcoming sign outside of a medical clinic on 16 Avenue Northwest was recently altered to display a message promoting exclusion and the clinic’s owner fears the defacement was racially motivated.
On Friday, Mustansir Raj was horrified to discover the sign indicating the Sehet Bow River Medical Clinic was ‘accepting new patients’ and ‘open daily’ had been defaced to read ‘accepting no white patients’.
“It really shocked me,” said Raj. “It makes me sad. This is not Canadian values, it is very un-Canadian.”
“When somebody sent me the picture I thought somebody had photoshopped it.”
Raj, who immigrated to Canada in the late 1990s, says everyone is welcome at the clinic and he would like the opportunity to speak with the person responsible for the changes to the sign.
“These sorts of things are definitely appearing more than before,” said Raj of his perceived increase in the number of acts of intolerance in Calgary. “I still feel that this is one single person’s misunderstanding. We would definitely like that person to come forward and talk with us.”
Raj has corrected the sign and reported the incident to the Calgary Police Service.
