As Canadians prepare to head to the polls, one Saanich resident has had trouble showing support for her preferred candidate on her front lawn.
Darya Ismailova, who lives with her husband, mother and young son in a home near Campus View Elementary School, has had the election sign she placed on her property defaced three times in five days.
On April 12, Ismailova returned home to find her small election sign, which promotes Victoria Conservative candidate Angus Ross, was missing.
“I saw that the metal rods that connect the sign to the ground were completely removed, and the sign was just lying somewhere else on the street,” she said.
Determined to continue displaying the sign, she picked it up and propped it against a metal tripod she found lying around her shed.
But after coming home from work on April 15, the sign had been removed again. This time, it was lying beneath a nearby bush.
“I asked my husband to figure something out, so we attached the sign securely with zip-ties to this tripod so you cannot easily just remove it,” said Ismailova.
The next day, someone had tried to tear the sign off the tripod because two of the three zip-ties holding it in place were broken.
On April 17, she woke up to find a new election sign had appeared on her lawn.
“I saw that somebody placed a Green Party lawn sign in front of the Conservative Party sign in such a way that it completely covered the Conservative Party sign,” she said, placing the Conservative one closer to her home.
"Nobody in my household gave consent to have the Green Party sign installed, nor was approached for consent," Ismailova added in an email.
She reported these incidents to Elections Canada. A representative called her back, but she was on a work trip and couldn’t respond. She also called the Saanich Police Department’s non-emergency line to report the incident, but she hung up when the wait time was too long.
“It's quite disturbing that somebody in my neighbourhood, I think, keeps doing this when I'm not breaking any laws,” she said. “First of all, it's an insult to me and at the same time, it is also an insult to my democratic rights.”
According to Elections Canada, the Canada Elections Act prohibits defacing, altering or stealing campaign signs.
“Complaints about the destruction, theft or vandalism of election signs should be directed to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, who is responsible for investigating potential wrongdoing under the Canada Elections Act,” reads the body’s website. “When the rules are broken, the Commissioner can take measures to enforce them."
The Saanich Police Department has cautioned people against vandalizing others' election signs.
"Damaging election signs is a criminal offence. Any individual caught doing so may face charges related to mischief under the Criminal Code of Canada," Saanich police said in an emailed statement. "If you see someone vandalizing personal property in Saanich, please report it to police right away: 250-475-4321."
