Mayoral candidate Don Scott receives several threats
Mayoral candidate and local lawyer Don Scott has received several threats since announcing his candidacy.
The threats have all been of a racist nature and were directed towards him personally, his family and staff at the law office.
Scott’s wife is originally from Taiwan but has been a Canadian resident for the past 15 years.
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“I feel like I have a pretty thick skin but I was very concerned when I saw my family and staff mentioned,” said Scott.
The threats came in the form of letters and messages that were left at his office.
Reports were made to the RCMP.
The first letter that was received Scott noted, specifically targeted the staff at the law firm as it is also a multicultural population, much like all of Fort McMurray.
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Scott has met with all his staff to discuss security but again preaches that they will not let this intimidate them, he was an MLA for several years and a cabinet minister but he has never received threats before.
“It’s an attack on the integrity of democracy which I think is deplorable,” said Scott.
The most recent message Scott received was a message through his office that is influencing people not to vote at all with the phone number of the prime minister’s office at the bottom.
“It’s a technique that people are using to intimidate people who are running in campaigns and I’m not going to let it stop me or intimidate me,” said Scott.
At this time Scott has no idea on who the threats are coming from.
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“They’re very similar in the kind of racist tone so it could be the same person but I have no idea, we’re meeting with the RCMP tomorrow with the most recent material we have received so they are going to follow up on it,” said Scott, “I have great faith in the RCMP.”
As to why anyone would threaten him Scott thinks it’s because he is well known to be a big supporter of Fort McMurray’s multiculturalism.
“I think the fact that you can meet people from so many diverse cultures and communities is one of the aspects that make it so amazing and so great. It’s a fantastic community, and one of the things that make it so special is that people from all over the world come here for the amazing opportunities even though there’s some challenges right now economically,” said Scott.
“This is still one of best places to be in Canada and I would say the world, I’ve lived in different places in the world and I chose Fort McMurray, I love it here.”