‘This kind of stuff is not tolerated’: Calgary man removes hate stickers from city fixtures

Using a paint scraper, Graeme says he's been removing stickers with hate speech that have been affixed to city fixtures since March 2022.

A Calgary man is singlehandedly taking it upon himself to remove messages of intolerance from light poles and signs placed there by hate-based groups across the city since last year.

Using a paint scraper, Graeme says he’s been removing stickers with hate speech that have been affixed to city fixtures since March 2022.

Some of these stickers he says he’s removed read, “white lives matter” and “defend the white race,” and “white revolution is the only solution,” which he calls an “absolute disrespect to the community.”

“A lot of it is hate speech. Especially for the hate speech, it’s just, I don’t want it in my neighbourhood, I don’t want to see it and I know a lot of other people don’t want to see it,” says Graeme.

Graeme started noticing the stickers around Calgary following the 2022 trucker blockades along the Coutts border. Since then, he estimates that he’s removed more than a thousand of them.

Since he began removing the stickers over year ago, he says he’s been harassed and even followed by groups for removing the stickers and clearing messages from sidewalks written in chalk.

Global News has agreed to keep his last name private due to worries about potential violence against him if anyone from the hate groups recognize him.

“There’s been a couple scary situations where I’ve had to call up police and there’s been real fears that they would assault me or enact violence,” he says.