Residents of Cherry Avenue woke up Monday morning to find a small package on their front lawns – from the Ku Klux Klan.
The package came in the form of a clear plastic bag containing a one page flyer and a small amount of rice.
The flyer indicates it is from the “Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” and that “Yes! White Lives Do Matter.”
It contains more statements and includes a website and a “Klan Hotline” phone number.
Mission RCMP received many complaints regarding the hate literature and several files were opened.
One of the residents who received the flyer was Ken Herar, founder of the Cycling4Diversity campaign.
Herar said he was at work when he heard about the incident, but his 83-year-old dad, Tok, was at home and found the flyer. Tok immediately took the literature to the RCMP.
“As a person who has lived her for six decades, I think it was very disturbing for him,” said Herar about his father. “I could see his reaction and I could see his pain and his frustration that we are still battling this.”
He said his dad is proud of the community and feels it is a community built on diversity.
The KKK flyers were also dropped off at some homes in Abbotsford and, earlier this year, in Chilliwack. While it is unknown if this is a local group distributing the literature, Herar said this is not the first incident to occur in Mission.
‘The Ku Klux Klan has existed in Mission for a long time. We’ve had cross burning in Mission back in the ’70s,” said Herar. “Now it hasn’t happened in quite a number of decades.”
Herar said whoever it was they are making a statement and seeking attention.
“They want to create fear and dismantle our diversity.”
Herar is planing on organizing a ride in Mission an Abbotsford in the next few weeks to talk to students about the KKK incident.
“We want to counter-act this. This is not our community. This does not represent us.”
Mission Mayor Randy Hawes agrees that this is not a representation of Mission and said he is unaware of any organized Ku Klux Klan.
“The people of Mission can be assured that they are not going to see a horde of hooded people walking down the street lighting crosses on fire,” said Hawes, adding that the police are already looking for the people spreading this hate information around.
“I’m sure the individuals who did this are in hiding. They are that kind of people. The literature should be scrapped and thrown away.”