Protest in Abbotsford takes aim at KKK flyers, police response
Posted January 22, 2017 12:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ABBOTSFORD (NEWS 1130) – The same day that members of the Coalition Against Bigotry rallied to honour Martin Luther King Junior, KKK flyers insulting the civil rights icon were scattered around a neighbourhood in Abbotsford.
The group is holding another rally outside a Sikh temple in that city today urging law enforcement and governments to act.
“They need to protect us and they’re not,” says Imtiaz Popat, an organizer with Coalition Against Bigotry Pacific.
The group formed after KKK flyers were delivered to homes in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission last fall.
“I’m not very happy with the reaction from the Abbotsford police, I have to tell you. I don’t think they’re taking it seriously,” says Popat, adding the rally is meant as a sort of wake-up call.
“White supremacies are on the rise in the Fraser Valley, in Vancouver, and nothing’s being done about it,” says Popat.
He says the reports of racially-motivated attacks have been getting more frequent.
“These people are dangerous. They are out to kill us. They have guns from the past. They firebomb, they hurt, and they attack, and we need to take this seriously.”
Back in 1998, a group of skinheads stomped a man to death outside a Sikh Temple in Surrey.
The BC Hate Crimes Team is being consulted about the latest set of flyers.
