Ontario municipal candidates face 'organized hatred' as campaign nears close

Kojo Damptey's campaign expected one of his ads at a Hamilton bus station would be defaced well before a sticker that read "white people first" was found placed over the poster of the city council hopeful.

The first-time candidate often encountered anti-Black racist messages and threats in his former role as executive director of Hamilton Centre For Civic Inclusion, he said in a phone interview.

His campaign planned to regularly check on the ad in anticipation of similar backlash.

"Now running for city council, I knew that it will probably happen again, and lo and behold, it happened," he said. "It didn't surprise us."

The racist sticker on Damptey's ad is one of three incidents being investigated by Hamilton police's hate crime unit related to election candidates.

With voting day set for Monday in municipal and school board elections across Ontario, some candidates are facing intense, hostile rhetoric — some in-person and some online — as they put their names forward on local ballots.

Candidates from diverse backgrounds and women appear to be targeted especially harshly, forcing some to spend precious time and resources navigating threats — and in some cases questioning whether political life is worth it at all.

Nili Kaplan-Myrth is a first-time trustee candidate in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, but the family doctor had already been in the public eye for her advocacy around COVID-19 safety and vaccinations.

Her campaign was immediately targeted, she said, with stolen lawn signs, violent threats and anti-vaccine and antisemitic messages that attacked her as a Jewish woman and a physician.

"I've been bombarded," she said in a phone interview. "It is such organized hatred."

In some cases, stickers were put on her signs with QR codes that directed people to anti-vaccine websites. Antisemitic, anti-vaccine pamphlets were dropped off at homes that had signs for her campaign.

In one instance, she said a man at a campaign event verbally harassed her about her decision to wear a face mask. She said she reported another online threat to police that came from a username that said "die Jewess."

Ottawa Police said as of last Friday, they had received 41 complaints related to campaign signs in the city, including one suspected hate crime.

The number of complaints isn't unusual compared to past elections at every level of government, Acting Supt. Heather Lachine said in an interview. But she said the police service was "more proactive" this time by informing candidates early about the process of reporting hate crimes and mischief.