More messages of hate have been found strewn in the streets near another Vernon school.
Two days after hundreds of notes containing links to racist and white supremacist propaganda were found tossed around local schools, Patrick Vance made a similar discovery on 15th Street early Friday morning.
Vance said he was taking out his garbage Oct. 2 when he spotted someone picking up pieces of paper just across from the bus stop at Vernon Secondary School.
“It (was) literally up and down both sides of the street,” he said.
The latest scraps of paper contained the website address of David Duke — former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — as well as links to Holocaust denial websites and American Renaissance, a group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Centre as promoting white supremacy.
“This is a primary area for students, so it’s clear the perps were hoping to impact a lot of them and were focusing on that area,” Vance said.
The flyers that were spread Wednesday, Sept. 30, coincided with Orange Shirt Day — a day meant for recognizing the harms caused by the residential school system — and sparked condemnation from local social activists, organizations and the mayor of Vernon. The Vernon North Okanagan RCMP are investigating the matter.
Having picked up handfuls of notes himself, Vance lauded the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 626 member he first saw picking up the flyers at 6:30 a.m., who told him other CUPE members have been busy scouring school areas throughout the Vernon School District.
“I think their agile response should be commended,” Vance said.
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