A candidate for a seat on the city council in Brockville, Ontario, has had five election campaign posters defaced, one of them with the word “homophobe” in black spray paint
A candidate for a seat on the city council in Brockville, Ontario, has had five election campaign posters defaced, one of them with the word “homophobe” in black spray paint, reports The Recorder. 
Jeff Earle, a council veteran of 23 years, is convinced the “homophobe” charge stems from a vote last February preventing debate on a motion to fly the rainbow flag behind city hall during the Winter Olympics.
A unanimous vote was required to get the motion to the floor. Earle, the only councillor to oppose hearing the motion, says he blocked the vote because of a desire to keep politics out of the Olympics.
Earle, who says the vandalism should be treated as a hate crime, resents being tarred as a homophobe because of that vote:
“I treat it as a hate crime. For them to label that, I find it a little offensive. That vote was not about whether you support individuals.”
City police are currently investigating.
In June, Ontario elected its first female and lesbian premier Kathleen Wynne.
[sign photo via Ronald Zajac/The Recorder and Times]
