Transphobic flyers target Vancouver school trustee candidate

Civic election campaign turns nasty Hateful and fraudulent issues are surfacing days before the municipal elections wrap up.

Hateful handouts asking voters not to cast their ballots for an openly transgender woman is being distributed in Vancouver by a man who can’t vote in the civic election, or any election in B.C., because his home is two provinces away.

“What a horrible thing to do, to hunt someone down from Saskatchewan – that’s crazy stuff,” Morgane Oger said.

Oger is running as an independent candidate for Vancouver school board trustee.

She learned about the flyers from police earlier in the week. Unfortunately, she has faced this before in 2017 when she ran for a seat in the provincial legislature.

Peter Quily recorded anti-gay activist Bill Whatcott handing out the posters in Kerrisdale.

“I’m just representing the point of view of Jesus Christ and his teachings on marriage and religious liberty,” Whatcott said in the video.

Oger believes many Christians would reject Whatcott’s beliefs, calling his actions “a horrible hijacking of a beautiful faith.”

“The worst part is that he thinks that, or he says he thinks that, I should be shamed for who I am,” she said.

Whatcott has a history of handing out homophobic literature across the country over the last two decades.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled he violated Saskatchewan's human rights rules when he distributed pamphlets denouncing homosexuals.

He is currently facing one charge of willful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group for an incident during Toronto’s Pride Month in 2016.

Oger has submitted a police complaint against Whatcott; it is unclear if charges will be laid

With files from CTV Vancouver's Breanna Karstens-Smith