Campaign signs for a Liberal candidate running in rural Nova Scotia have been vandalized, including one that was chopped up and burned.
Tamara Powell, the first Black candidate to run for MLA in Truro-Bible Hill-Millbrook-Salmon River, confirmed the news on social media over the weekend.
“So sad to see one of my signs be vandalized and stepped on, but hate can not stop hate,” said Powell in a Facebook post. “Only love can stop hate. I love my community and I will not stop. I will be a part of the change and solution, not part of the problem.”
Powell was born and raised in Truro and currently works as a human rights officer with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.
Meantime, Cumberland-Colchester Liberal MP Lenore Zann has taken to social media to condemn the act, saying one of the signs had been dragged out of the ground, hacked up, and then set on fire during the early morning hours on Sunday.
Two of Powell’s other signs across town had also been destroyed.
“A neighbour came out to tell me that he had heard chopping sounds, but didn’t know what it was – then a bit later his wife smelled smoke and looked out the window and saw a fire truck putting out a fire in that corner of Ford St. at Robie St.,” Zann said in a Facebook post. “We could still smell the smoke.”
Zann represented the riding as an NDP MLA for ten years before moving into federal politics in 2019.
She says she has been recently helping Powell with some canvassing.
“She’s amazing to meet in person and I hope many of you get to meet her to see what a great MLA she would make here in Truro-Bible Hill-Millbrook-Salmon River,” said Zann. “A position I was honoured to hold for ten years.”
Powell resides in Truro with her husband and their two sons. Her biography says she a is a proud “Autism Mom” and an advocate for social justice issues.
As part of her participation in a research study with the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, she is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at their race and disability conference in March 2022.
