by Elaine Teichgraber It was the Tuesday after Victoria Day long weekend. We, members of Willingdon Watch who are organizing the Save Willingdon Beach campaign, had spent the day before putting up posters on poles around town for our upcoming rally, using a ladder to ensure they were out of reach.
As I drove into town the next day, I noticed all of our signs were gone. Between the evening before and the next morning, someone had taken a ladder in the dark of night and gone to every pole we had put a sign on to rip it off.
We are a grassroots organization, funded only by ourselves. The posters were a major expense to us, and to have them vandalized like that meant digging into our own pockets to replace them.
Although we were upset, we were not surprised at all. The people behind these cowardly acts have been harassing our employers, posting lies about and making personal attacks on individual members of our group on the Internet and in person, and threatening businesses that support us.
As we walked into city hall that day after having our signs destroyed, we were greeted with a letter on City of Powell River letterhead, stating that if we did not remove all of our signs on poles around town immediately, we would be fined $2,000 a day.
So from the time we put up our signs on the holiday Monday, to the very next day, the city had already typed up a letter telling us to take our signs down. When we asked what this was about, they said they had received a complaint.
To make this very clear, these are the same poles everyone uses to post their garage sales, birthday wishes, upcoming events, et cetera. However, in their continuing effort to silence the 5,000-plus people who have signed our petition, we continue to be targeted again and again.
When are mayor and council going to stand up to these bullies and put an end to this?
I suggest the city starts sending these letters to everyone who puts signs on poles, as this may be a great way to raise funding for the library in light of the fact the mill is now up for sale and the new library will cost more than $9 million.
Elaine Teichgraber is a member of Willingdon Watch.
