The mayor of the Township of North Dumfries is speaking out after a sign for the community of Ayr was vandalized.
“About three, four weeks ago, we noticed that the sign had been [vandalized] with the racist remark on it. We contacted the Region [of Waterloo] and we contacted [Waterloo Regional Police Service] and it’s being looked into and being dealt with. Not as fast as we want,” Sue Foxton, Mayor of the Township of North Dumfries, said.
Someone vandalized the sign to add the letters ‘A’ and ‘B’ after the name ‘Ayr.’ Foxton acknowledged it took some time, but the sign is now back to normal.
“I’m hoping it’s kids that misunderstood, because if it’s an adult, it’s harder to teach people. Hate breeds hate. You can’t change hate by hating back. What you have to do is be even kinder to those people that don’t understand and say, ‘You know what we stand for? Look what we stand for,’” Foxton said.
The Region of Waterloo confirms the sign was cleaned on Monday. It’s not known who vandalized it, but a nearby sign was also hit with graffiti.
Foxton said a few residents contacted her upset about it.
The Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) said they are aware and are investigating.
The Ayr Islamic Centre recently started renting a space in the local curling club once a week to operate a prayer group of over 30 people. Drew Dayman, past president of Ayr Curling, said it has been wonderful having a diverse range of groups and people in the building and is hopeful they will try bonding over the game of curling.
“I think it’s terrible. In today’s day in age people should be more inclusive and more welcoming. That somebody would go and vandalize the Ayr sign is just terrible,” Dayman said. “There’s the minority that do these terrible things, like vandalize signs, that type of thing. I think you just have to kind of look past that and just be more welcoming.”
Qavi Aziz, chair of the Ayr Islamic Centre, has lived in the community for three years. He said overall the community has been welcoming, but it upset him to see the vandalism on the sign. Aziz said he doesn’t personally feel attacked, but it sends the wrong message to new residents in Ayr.
“It’s not on myself, but yes, for the community I believe that since the new immigrants who are coming from other cities and they are buying the houses here, they are living here. I think some people, not all - whoever I met here, they’re beautiful,” Aziz said.
Aziz wants all residents of Ayr, no matter their beliefs, to be able to move forward as a community. He said with how beautiful the area is, and nice the people are, he doesn’t have any plans of leaving.
“I decided myself that whatever age I have remaining, I’ll be staying here in Ayr,” Aziz said.
According to WRPS, of the 232 occurrences of graffiti in 2024, 62 occurrences were hate-motivated. The Region of Waterloo is working on an anti-hate campaign through the Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan.
Foxton said any form of hate is not welcome in the community.
“We have to train each generation. We all stand, and we say we’re Canadians. But I wrote an article this morning for the newspaper and said, we are a diverse nation, and that’s what Canada is,” Foxton said.
