CAMPBELLFORD -- On Halloween weekend, two men were united by costume: one dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member led another in blackface through a small-town Legion party by a noose. Less than a week later, however, they are divided about the controversy their getups have caused.

“It was a big mistake and I just want it to go away,” said Terry Nunn, who sat stonefaced in a back corner of the Riverview restaurant in his usually quiet town on Wednesday afternoon. He folded his hands on the table in front of him and bent his head. “I don't want this to be a circus.”

On Saturday night, Nunn and his friend Blair Crowley won the prize for “most original costume” at the Legion party in Campbellford. Crowley dressed as the Klansman and sported a Confederate flag; Nunn, a retired Toronto police officer, was in blackface. He wore a flannel shirt, jeans and a noose.

Crowley thinks the incident was blown out of proportion and was just a joke, according to his 17-year-old, who answered the door at the family home in nearby Hastings on Wednesday. His father is away on business; Crowley works in the printing business in Ottawa, family members said.

“My dad’s not racist, his best friend is black,” the son said.

Crowley “randomly decided to roll up a piece of bristol board and throw on a sheet” a half-hour before the party, his son recalled.

“Maybe he should have just gone to the Legion as Raggedy Ann and Andy with my mom, like he was supposed to.”

Nunn was elected director of legal services for the Toronto Police Association, the force’s union, in 2003 and as recently as 2004 served as its acting vice-president.

Mike McCormack, current president of the TPA, said the incident was “totally insensitive, regardless of where they used to work.” He added he knew Nunn, but that “whether he’s a good person in other ways…the one action is obviously grossly inappropriate.”

In Campbellford, residents are dismayed by the negative attention the incident has drawn. Ranking officers at the Royal Canadian Legion are washing their hands of the incident. The Ontario Provincial Police are investigating.

The Legion has temporarily closed its doors under the orders of provincial commanders.

“It’s very unfortunate that the poor decisions of two individuals have put Campbellford under the microscope of the nation,” said Hector Macmillan, mayor of the municipality of Trent Hills, which includes Campbellford, as he stood outside the locked-up Legion.

“They should have never been allowed in the building, and they certainly should never have won a prize.”

Mark Andrade, who helped bring the incident to the media’s attention, agrees. “It’s not reflective of what life is like in Campbellford, otherwise I wouldn’t be living here,” said Andrade, who is black.

“I’d like the town to get back to normal. That’d be nice. But I know that won’t happen right away,” he said.

Andrade has received a few racist, expletive-filled phone calls since photos of the incident were made public, but the overwhelming feedback has been positive.

One woman, Wendy Thorn, walked into Andrade’s restaurant a few doors down from the Legion and told him, “I just wanted to say I’m glad you went to the media, and I can’t believe what happened.”

Officials at every level of the Royal Canadian Legion’s organization are scrambling to make amends.

Dominion President Patricia Varga released an official apology from Ottawa Wednesday, saying she sincerely regretted the incident and was satisfied that the Ontario commanders were handling the follow-up investigation properly.

“I also want the citizens of Canada and the members of the organization to know that this behaviour is not condoned by the Legion nor is it reflective of its members,” Varga said.

In Ontario, the Provincial Command closed the branch and began an investigation into the incident to discover “who was conducting the event, who was the member in charge, what exactly happened, and go from there,” according to executive director Dave Gordon.

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The Campbellford branch’s president, Joy Herrington, released a statement of apology on Tuesday.

Ontario Provincial Police officers have suggested the incident was merely bad judgment; investigators do not expect to lay criminal charges.

-With files from Allison Cross