CALGARY -- What should have been a joyous outing for some new Calgarians seeking a Christmas tree turned into an ugly racist confrontation that’s left them questioning their chosen city.
Laura Sharpe, who moved with her three young children from Toronto to Calgary two years ago, said her family was looking for a tree to cut in Bragg Creek Provincial Park last Thursday after she’d secured a permit to do so.
Sharpe said they’d spotted the ideal evergreen along Hwy. 66 and were proceeding to cut it down.
“Our permit was on the dashboard in the car and they’d given us a map to show where we could cut down trees,” said Sharpe, 31.
It was then, she said, that a white SUV drove past, then quickly returned to where the mother and her kids, aged 10, 11 and 12, had paused with their new Christmas tree.
“It was a white couple and they started taking pictures ... they were in their 50s, they could have been school teachers,” Sharpe recalled.
The man then yelled at the four, insisting they had no legal right to harvest a tree, while the woman shot video of them on her smartphone, Sharpe said.
“I said, ‘It’s not illegal,’ and then he called us ‘dumb, stupid n i g g e r s ’ to me and my kids ... they were about 10 or 15 feet away from us,” she said.
more Christmas Spirit
Racist slurs shock family cutting down Christmas tree | Canada | News | Toronto Sun
Laura Sharpe, who moved with her three young children from Toronto to Calgary two years ago, said her family was looking for a tree to cut in Bragg Creek Provincial Park last Thursday after she’d secured a permit to do so.
Sharpe said they’d spotted the ideal evergreen along Hwy. 66 and were proceeding to cut it down.
“Our permit was on the dashboard in the car and they’d given us a map to show where we could cut down trees,” said Sharpe, 31.
It was then, she said, that a white SUV drove past, then quickly returned to where the mother and her kids, aged 10, 11 and 12, had paused with their new Christmas tree.
“It was a white couple and they started taking pictures ... they were in their 50s, they could have been school teachers,” Sharpe recalled.
The man then yelled at the four, insisting they had no legal right to harvest a tree, while the woman shot video of them on her smartphone, Sharpe said.
“I said, ‘It’s not illegal,’ and then he called us ‘dumb, stupid n i g g e r s ’ to me and my kids ... they were about 10 or 15 feet away from us,” she said.
more Christmas Spirit
Racist slurs shock family cutting down Christmas tree | Canada | News | Toronto Sun
