Hateful undertones emerge in Toronto election campaign
Posted September 24, 2014 7:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Two candidates running for mayor and council in Toronto’s election next month have been targeted with hateful messages.
In a mayoral debate on Tuesday night, an audience member told Chinese-Canadian candidate Olivia Chow, “Go home to China.”
And a day later, she was greeted with a similarly negative sign when she arrived at another debate downtown.
“Those kinds of negative and hateful comments should have no place in the city,” she said.
“[Last night’s] not the first time I’ve received racist comments … and I saw it again today.”
Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam had a handwritten letter, peppered with homophobic slurs, sent to her at city hall.
In the letter, which Wong-Tam shared with her Twitter followers on Tuesday, the author called her an “ugly lesbian” and said, “I hope you get AIDS and die in public office,” before claiming to support Ford Nation.
“The language is completely unacceptable,” Wong-Tam said.
“[It’s] language that’s seeped in … vitriolic hate. You are seeing homophobic language and sexist language and racist language.”
She said it’s the second such letter she’s received since June.
In a news conference on Wednesday, mayoral candidate Doug Ford said he didn’t condone those views among his supporters.
