The Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association is calling for more condemnation of the vandalism at Harriet Tubman Public School in St. Catharines.
Niagara Police are investigating after racist and homophobic slurs were spray painted on the school and statue.
The association released the following statement:
“The Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association condemns the flagrant vandalism of the Harriet Tubman Public School, including her statue, and nearby neighborhood in a direct white supremacist and homophobic attack.
We welcome that some local elected officials have condemned this but we call on far wider condemnation from not only other elected officials but from everyone in Niagara who can add their voice.
Those who perpetrated these attacks need to hear our region ringing with condemnation so that it stays in the minds of anyone who is encouraged by this vandalism to escalate to more violence.
This is not the first time a statue of Harriet Tubman has been violated in St. Catharines, and last year another Harriet Tubman School, in her home state of Maryland in the US, was also vandalized by white supremacists.
No one in Niagara can rest in comfort thinking that the escalation of white supremacist and anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ violence will escape us."
The group is inviting the public to join them at an event on June 27th at the Niagara Falls History Museum for a discussion with Dr. Barbara Perry on to counter extremism and white supremacy in our region.