Swastikas painted on walls and bus shelters in Victoria have raised concerns among local Twitter users.
Tweets posted Wednesday show incidents of the hate marking appearing on downtown bus shelters – one shows swastikas drawn onto pigs in an ad on a bus shelter, reportedly outside the Hudson Market on Douglas Street.
In another Tweet, North Delta MLA Ravi Kahlon shared an image of a Swastika reportedly drawn on a wall outside his friend’s door in downtown Victoria.
“Scary stuff,” he remarked in his Tweet.
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Asked about the swastikas, VicPD said there has been a significant increase in graffiti over the last six months, but most of it hasn’t involved hate symbols.
“Instances of swastika and other hate-symbol graffiti are understandably concerning,” said VicPD communications coordinator Bowen Osoko. “Both our hate crimes investigator and our graffiti investigator are aware of similar incidents in Victoria and Esquimalt.”
VicPD says surveillance footage is always helpful, and asks anyone who discovers incidents like these to call the non-emergency line at 250-996-7654.
A friend of mine woke this morning to this outside of her door in downtown #VictoriaBC Scary stuff. 😳 pic.twitter.com/ajWegVvKLq
— Ravi kahlon (@KahlonRav) July 17, 2019
@BCTransit this is outside the Hudson market on Doulgas. Please fix this. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/nCHEBYPqW3
— Allie (@DuchessAllie) July 17, 2019
@BCTransit this is outside the Hudson market on Doulgas. Please fix this. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/7I2FqJzHjV
— Allie (@DuchessAllie) July 17, 2019
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Twitter user @DuchessAllie, asked BC Transit to remove the symbols, but they responded that stop maintenance is the job of the municipality.
Hello Allie, thank you for sharing these with us. Bus stop maintenance is the responsibility of the local government so please reach out to them as well. I will pass this along to our team as well.
— BC Transit (@BCTransit) July 17, 2019
The City of Victoria could not be reached for comment by the time of publication.
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