York Lake Regional Park board reviewing incident following allegations of racism
CTV
A Melville resident is calling for the removal of a nearby regional park board member after she claims she was the target of racism and verbal harassment.
A Melville resident who claims she was the target of racism and verbal harassment is calling for the removal of a regional park board member.
Maria Cole-Gayle was helping set up the Jamaican Independence Day celebrations near York Lake Regional Park on Aug. 7. The group had rented out the Yorkton Wildlife Federation as a venue.
Cole-Gayle claims she was verbally harassed at the park entrance while she was driving back and forth to drop off supplies at the event site.
“I have never felt so disrespected in my life,” Cole-Gayle said.
“Had I been white it wouldn’t have happened. Had I been a man it wouldn’t have happened.”
On one of her final trips past the park gate, she says two men standing in the road approached her and her sister-in-law. The men claimed to be from the York Lake Park Board, Cole-Gayle said.
She alleges the men swore at her and told them both to get out of the park. It wasn’t until Cole-Gayle started recording the incident with her phone that the men asked to see her park pass, she claimed.
