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We are writing to our fellow citizens to address an urgent public-health matter in Vancouver. In a matter of days, the Trump Tower will open.

With the public display of the Trump name, we will be seen as condoning the ridicule of the disabled, and condoning sexism, xenophobia and bigotry.

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In spite of a significant effort on the part of our mayor, Gregor Robertson, to have the name Trump removed, it hasn’t been possible.

We are now turning to the public to recognize that the presence of the name under current conditions is a matter of public health that will affect the youngest and most vulnerable in our community. We believe the name represents a socially contagious condition that endangers the health and well-being of our children and youth. At this point this is a matter of public health, not politics.

As physicians we work everyday to address children’s trauma and improve mental health in ways that fosters a healthy social and physical environment regardless of race, gender or developmental ability. This directly conflicts with the prominently displayed Trump name, which serves to promote a prominent and influential role model who openly mocks and humiliates individuals with disabilities, boasts of repeatedly subjecting women to sexual groping of breasts and genitals, refers to immigrant groups as “rapists and murderers” and characterizes religious minorities as “terrorists.”