Video: Sanitation worker trashes lawn sign of Whitby Liberal candidate

Ontario | Durham | Whitby | Latest News | Politics |

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Published September 13, 2021 at 10:16 pm

A sequence of screengrabs shows a sanitation worker clearly rip Ryan Turnbull's sign out of the ground and throw it into the garbage truck on Monday. (Twitter/@votingnurse)

A sanitation worker in Whitby broke the law by stealing and destroying a lawn sign promoting Liberal candidate Ryan Turnbull, who is running for reelection in the riding.

A Twitter user, @votingnurse, shared a 15-second video on their account on Monday. It shows a sanitation truck pull up to the curb. The orange-vested worker on the passenger side got out, ripped Turnbull’s red Liberal sign out of the ground and tossed it into the truck before emptying the green bin.

The Town of Whitby says it has launched an investigation.

Removing, destroying or stealing an election campaign sign during the election period is a criminal offence in Canada. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, it can be classified as mischief under $5,000 or theft under $5,000.

It was unclear whether the worker stole and destroyed any more of signs promoting Turnbull or other candidates.

The original poster tweeted that a sign on the same street supporting Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) candidate Maleela Shahid was left alone.

Along with Turnbull and Shahid, the other candidates in Whitby are Brian Dias (New Democratic Party), Johannes Kotilainen (Green) and Thomas Androvic (People’s Party).

In 2019, Turnbull was elected with 43.7 support ahead of the CPC’s Todd McCarthy (35.5) and the NDP’s Dias (14.1).

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