Toronto Police are investigating after a noose was found at the Eglinton Crosstown LRT Leaside construction site at Eglinton and Bayview streets in Toronto on March 10.
Stakeholders condemned the incident, the latest in a string since last summer in which nooses were placed at Toronto construction sites. In December, police charged a Toronto man after two nooses were found at the Michael Garron Hospital jobsite in June.
Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney tweeted yesterday (March 11), “I’ve been made aware that a noose was found at the Eglinton Crosstown Leaside construction site last night (March 10).
“Racism and hate, in any shape or form, will not be tolerated in Ontario. We are working with @Metrolinx and the @TorontoPolice are investigating.”
Crosslinx Transit Solutions is the consortium building the LRT project for Metrolinx. Crosslinx spokesperson Kristin Jenkins commented in a statement, “Crosslinx is disgusted that this racist act happened on one of our sites. Crosslinx has zero tolerance for racism and any kind of discrimination.”
Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster also issued a statement: “At Metrolinx, we value and celebrate diversity and inclusion and were appalled to learn about this abhorrent act at a Crosslinx construction site. We have been assured by Crosslinx, they’re taking this incident very seriously and are fully co–operating with the police investigation.
‘Racism, bigotry and hate, in any form, will not be tolerated under any circumstance. Whether it’s inside an office, at a station or at a construction site we fully expect all of our employees and contractors to create safe and inclusive spaces – and to treat each other with respect. No exceptions.”
Verster said when the perpetrators are found, they will be banned from working on all Metrolinx sites.
Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins added, “We were so disappointed to hear this happened again because we know the industry has been working very hard to educate and ensure this kind of hateful act doesn’t happen on construction sites.”
Follow the author on Twitter @DonWall_DCN.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed