HALIFAX -- Police in Halifax are investigating after a piece of property was damaged at a Halifax cemetery.
On Saturday, Halifax Regional Police received reports of damage to a sign at the Camp Hill Cemetery on Summer Street.
When officers arrived, they did find three "highly offensive racial slurs" written with marker on the sign that directs visitors to the headstone of Canadian icon Ms. Viola Desmond.
The Black Nova Scotian woman, who died in 1965, was well known for her refusal to move from the whites-only section of a segregated movie theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., in 1946.
She was arrested, jailed and fined, and it took 63 years for the province to issue a posthumous apology and pardon for the racist incident.
The Integrated Criminal Investigation Division is continuing to investigate the incident as a hate crime.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police, Crime Stoppers, or submit it by using the P3 Tips app.
Police are reminding the public that such actions within the community are unacceptable, and anyone planning to initiate or copy such actions can expect to face serious consequences.
With files from The Canadian Press.
