The Fort Saskatchewan RCMP has opened an investigation after disturbing messages were seen in a local park.
On Apr. 29, residents reported seeing swastikas spray-painted on a garbage can in Mowat Park. Resident David Scott took a photo of the graffiti and posted it on social media.
"Fort Saskatchewan is a community of diverse people of all religions, non-religions, beliefs and ethnicities, and there are still those who feel this is acceptable... surely we should have advanced past this," he wrote on Facebook.
The RCMP has since started looking into the incident and is working to identify those responsible.
"Anytime graffiti shows up in a neighbourhood, it creates a sense of danger to the occupants of the neighbourhood. They don't feel safe when they see graffiti, and obviously, it's ugly. When we're dealing with a situation like this where it has some potential hate-motivated scenario, [the fear] just increases, and it can make people within a community feel even more alienated," explained RCMP Corporal Troy Savinkoff.
As the investigation is still early, police say it is too soon to determine if this is a hate-motivated crime or simply mischief.