Graffiti appears outside proposed Yellowknife shelter location ahead of city vote
CBC
Graffiti appeared on the sidewalk outside 4709 Franklin Avenue, in Yellowknife, ahead of a special city council meeting Monday night to decide whether a temporary day shelter can be established at that location.
The nine messages, scrawled in white, repeated the phrase "white people scare me" and included variations on the question "where do people sleep at night when it's –50 outside?" They were written on both street-facing sides of the building, on Franklin Avenue and 48 Street.
The messages reach as far as the sidewalk in front of the neighbouring buildings on either side of the proposed location, which are home to a number of businesses that have publicly expressed opposition to the territorial government's intent to turn it into a temporary day shelter until Oct. 31, 2024.
Zoe Guile, a member of the Concerned Yellowknife Residents for a Day Shelter Downtown Facebook group, told CBC News she has no idea who wrote the messages, and that she wasn't surprised by them either.
"I think there's been a lot of ignorant and racist discourse coming from people who, I would say, are [for the] majority, white," she said. "I also wouldn't blame anyone for having that reaction to everything that's going on, surrounding the day shelter and shelters in general in Yellowknife."
Guile, who described herself as a white settler, said it's not her place to judge someone for writing the messages.
She suspects, however, that they come from someone frustrated by ongoing discussions surrounding people who "deserve safety."
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