Councillor reports receiving homophobic hate mail

Kristyn Wong-Tam says it’s not the first time she has received hate mail and that going public is the right response.

Thestar.com
April 13, 2017
By Jennifer Pagliaro

A city councillor reported receiving homophobic and racist hate mail to police on a day dedicated to fighting homophobia, transphobia and bullying.

“God says it best,” read the penned words delivered in a letter to the city hall office of Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27 Trinity-Spadina), an LGBTQ member of council. The words appeared over a picture of a sign that reads: “Homosexuality is a sin.”

It is the fourth similar letter containing both racist and homophobic slurs received by Wong-Tam, she said, who tweeted a picture of the most recent letter Wednesday, on International Day of Pink.

“I have probably received my share of not pleasant correspondence that’s not necessarily about the work that I do, it’s about personality and who I am,” Wong-Tam said. “I did not want to keep quiet and I know there are other people who actually receive hateful mail at city hall who choose not to speak out ... But I thought that it would be inappropriate for me, as someone who has actually been a huge advocate to end discrimination, to stop bullying, that I not actually follow my own advice” and that of international campaigns.

“If you see it, you must say something. If you hear it, you must do something to stop it.”

The most recent letter and one sent last year, which Wong-Tam also posted online, were not signed.

The Star was not able to determine the origin of the letters. One letter contained a return address which is not a legal Toronto address. A post office mark containing a partial postal code appears to indicate it was mailed from an east-end location.

The second letter came in an envelope with a return address on Main St. in Toronto associated to Your Ward News - a newsletter typically distributed in the Beach neighbourhood which has been banned from circulation by the federal ministry overseeing Canada Post.

Last year, Public Services Minister Judy Foote issued a rare interim order to stop Your Ward News from being distributed through Canada Post. A statement from her ministry Thursday said Foote had “reasonable grounds to conclude that sending Your Ward News through the mail constituted hate propaganda and/or the publication of defamatory libel, in contravention of the Criminal Code.”

The two men, Leroy St. Germaine and James Sears, behind the publication are fighting the ban at a board of review process set up by the ministry of public Services and procurement.

In an email Thursday, Sears said the letter sent to Wong-Tam was not their doing.

“Leroy St. Germaine and I were made aware of this letter via Twitter posts early in the day yesterday. We chose to ignore it as, obviously, neither myself, nor Leroy St. Germaine, nor to our knowledge anyone associated with either The New Constitution Party of Canada or Your Ward News, were behind the letter,” Sears wrote. “The fact that it was written anonymously yet contains our return address, was written in a very inflammatory manner, and was timed to be mailed a mere two weeks before a board of review into our mailing rights, makes the letter appear to be a ‘hate crime hoax.’”

The ministry did not respond to a question about the mail received by Wong-Tam.

The board of review process regarding Your Ward News is ongoing.