Racist vandalism reported near campus
Queen’s students turned in two posters vandalized with racist phrases to the Queen’s Human Rights Office last week.
One poster d a Human Rights Office event, “Colour of Poverty,” that took place on Jan. 31 and the other was a “For Rent” sign. Both were signed by a white supremacist Internet group, stormfront.org, and were found on University Avenue close to campus.
This is the second racist incident to occur at the University since November, when a professor was forced off the sidewalk by four male students in engineering jackets and subjected to racial slurs.
In a press release yesterday, Principal Karen Hitchcock denounced the behaviour, saying the University would work with the city to prevent future incidents. She commended the students who reported the vandalism.
“Such a refusal to tolerate racism, and to act accordingly, is what we expect and hope for from all of the Queen’s and Kingston community,” Hitchcock said in the statement.
In an e-mail to the Journal and other campus organizations, Colour of Poverty Co-organizer Cheryl Sutherland said the incident demonstrates the need for further discussion of diversity issues.
“The fact that the defaced posters were discovered so close to campus borders comes as no surprise,” Sutherland wrote. “It happens all too frequently, and this type of hate and violence is but one barrier that racialized individuals and groups face.”
—Gloria Er-Chua and Kerri MacDonald
Police apprehend JDUC thief
Kingston police caught a suspected thief about three hours after a woman reported having her blue duffel bag containing her purse, personal identification, bank cards, house keys and school books stolen near Common Ground in the JDUC.
A police car was patrolling at Chatham and Elm streets at approximately 12:45 p.m. and saw a man carrying a blue duffel bag with a Queen’s logo on it, said police spokesperson Const. Mike Menor.
“Officers knew him from previous dealings and knew he did not go to Queen’s,” he said. “When he was questioned about the bag and its contents, he said that he found it when it fell out of a truck.”
Police arrested Cory Adam Malott, 36, for possession of stolen property and charged him with breaking and entering and theft.
“They ed the owner and advised her not only did they find it, they found everything that was stolen out of it.”
—Jane Switzer
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