Swastika, racial slurs written on Calgary council candidate’s election sign

One of Raj Dhaliwal's election signs was vandalized.

CALGARY -

A sign for a Ward 5 candidate in Calgary was vandalized with racial slurs and a swastika.

The defaced sign for Raj Dhaliwal was located along Martindale Drive and a community member alerted him to the vandalism.

“It brought me to tears because the language there is just so crude and so offensive,” said Dhaliwal. “I was especially disgusted because it’s so close to a school… the school is out, but imagine if those kids were exposed to this kind of language.”

Dhaliwal said he grew up in this ward and called the community “inclusive.”

“It makes me think how effective is our slogan, when we say are fighting anti-racism or systemic racism, are we really doing that work or is it just the language or the lip service that we are using,” said Dhaliwal.

“Vandalism is one thing, it’s always concerning… vandalism happens in every election, but when you look at this kind of vandalism, which is racially motivated… that is really concerning.”

He hopes the incident doesn’t discourage others from wanting to run for a seat on council.”

“I hope it encourages them, because that will be a message that we are strong,” said Dhaliwal.

Calgarians will go to the polls for the municipal election on Oct. 18.