On Saturday Jim Dean arrived at his law firm on Hamilton Road to find a hateful message spray-painted across his front door.
In spray-paint the message read “Dirty gay money. *expletive* lawyer,”
“Us here at Jim Dean Law and the Hamilton Road Legal Centre are huge supporters of our LGBTQ community and all community members,” said Jim Dean, attorney and owner of the firm. “Some people aren’t happy with that. That’s too bad.”
Video surveillance obtained by CTV News shows a person who allegedly spray painted the anti-LGBTQ message just before 3 a.m. Saturday morning.
“He comes here without a mask, full face and it’s not blatant. It’s just stupid,” Dean said, referring to the video.
Jim and his wife Katie said they believe they know the person in question and have notified police.
"We are aware of the occurrence and are actively investigating it," London police told CTV News.
“I think that there’s a lot of hate in the community right now that’s very concerning,” said Katie Dean.
“The people that did this knew I would be at Wortley pride with my kids as a vendor and they chose to involve our building and my husband’s firm.”
This is one of several acts of hate made towards the LGBTQ community this week, including protests at Wortley’s pride event on Saturday and a group of students at the Sir Frederick Banting high-school being investigated after ripping down a pride flag and throwing it in the garbage.
Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis, London’s first openly gay city councillor, has spoken out against several hate crimes and anti-LGBTQ messaging that has been circulating.
“I hope that we see our London police force do what they can. In an era of front door security cameras I hope that we can identify these individuals and that we can see some charges laid,” he said.
Lewis sees this incident as another hate crime.
“They’re meant to bully and intimidate and I’m not going to be intimidated. Enough is enough and this has to stop,” he said.
Jim and Katie Dean aren’t afraid to show their continued support for pride, as they cleaned up their office and decorated their front windows with pride flags.
“The one good thing about this is that the graffiti is now gone and the love is up,” Katie said. “The pride flags are up.”
