No, not a joke: fourteen people got the brake lines of their cars cut last Saturday night because they had Liberal Party signs on their lawns:
Affected residents live in the riding of St. Paul’s, in a swath of the city around Eglinton Ave. between Bathurst St. and Mount Pleasant Rd., and had Carolyn Bennett signs on their property. Although Meloche confirmed 10 cases of vandalism last night, Liberal riding headquarters said the number was going up, reporting 14 by 9 p.m.
The cars were also damaged in other ways; some were scratched and keyed with L signs. Phone and cable lines of some homes were cut.
“There are two child seats in the back of my car,” said Andrew Lane, chief financial officer for Bennett’s campaign. “To cut the brake line on a car like that is just evil. Awful.”
Added Lane, whose children are 6 months and 22 months: “You have to crawl under someone’s car and cut the brake line, knowing that it could kill someone, or their whole family.”
Lane discovered his brakes didn’t work on his silver Saturn View as he tried to pull up at a stop sign near his home yesterday. He kept slamming the brakes and, in a “moment of terror,” narrowly avoided slamming into a bus.
Later, the garage called to tell him it had been no accident. When Lane expressed disbelief, the mechanic told him: “Look, this is a big, heavy rubber hose and it’s been cut through with a very sharp knife. You should phone the police.”
Police later said Lane was not alone and asked if he had an election sign, telling him, “The Carolyn Bennett sign seems to be the one thing linking events.”
It didn’t stop there. More vandalism happened on Sunday, with twelve more incidents in another riding (election district):
The 12 new acts of vandalism – cutting of brake, phone and cable lines and graffiti defacing homes and garages – come on the heels of 14 similar incidents reported Saturday in St. Paul’s riding.
The 26 incidents are likely connected and the work of one person since they are so similar in nature, Liberal party insiders say.
“There is this hatred thing that is so upsetting – hatred of Liberals,” said Carolyn Bennett, Liberal incumbent for St. Paul’s. “There’s no other excuse for this in terms of this kind of intimidation.
“That’s what’s so upsetting. We don’t know who’s doing it at all. We just think this is somebody who really is not well.”
Have the Republicans been sending advisors to their counterparts up north?