‘Just sickening’: Backlash after Terry Fox statue ‘appropriated’ at Ottawa trucker rally
Global News
"To have someone try and appropriate his legacy and his image for a political cause, whatever the cause, is just sickening," said Brad West, mayor of Fox's hometown Port Coquitlam.
The mayor of Terry Fox’s British Columbia hometown and the leader of the federal opposition are among those speaking out Saturday, after a statue of Canadian icon Terry Fox was covered in political statements at an Ottawa rally opposing COVID-19 measures.
“To have someone try and appropriate his legacy and his image for a political cause, whatever the cause, is just sickening,” Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West told Global News.
“It’s just so wrong.”
Photos from the rally showed the statue holding an upside-down Canadian flag, along with a sign that reads “mandate freedom.”
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said he had instructed city staff to remove the items, but within an hour new photos appeared on social media showing the statue holding a new protest sign.
Fox, a cancer patient and amputee, was born in Winnipeg, but raised in Port Coquitlam, B.C. The 22-year-old became a national icon with his 1980 attempt to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.
Fox lost his battle to cancer in 1981 before he could complete his cross-country journey, but became a national inspiration. Millions of dollars have since been raised in his name for cancer research.
