A person used black paint to deface both the rainbow crosswalk and the Urban Art Gallery in downtown Nanaimo, both symbols of inclusivity and LGBTQ2+ pride. (submitted/Lauren Semple)

By Alex Rawnsley

HATE SPEECH

‘It’s driven by hate:’ Nanaimo rainbow crosswalk, pride mural defaced

Jul 5, 2021 | 12:22 PM

NANAIMO — The only two public art pieces showing pride and inclusivity with Nanaimo’s LGBTQ2+ community were destroyed over the weekend.

Black paint and a roller was used on both the rainbow crosswalk at the Bastion St. and Commercial St. intersection, along with a large mural on the Urban Art Gallery on Wallace St.

Lauren Semple, one of the artists of the mural, told NanaimoNewsNOW her concern immediately went to vulnerable members of Nanaimo’s LGBTQ2+ community.

“These crosswalks are signs of solidarity with the community, it’s also a symbol of social inclusion. When city’s paint these crosswalks, it’s meant to say ‘hey, we see you, you’re represented here, you belong here and we’ve got your back’. For both to get targeted like this, it’s quite obvious it’s driven by hate.”

The City was alerted of the damage by Semple on Saturday, July 3, with multiple councillors reaching out to express their support, however as of Sunday, July 4 no clean-up had occurred.

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Semple and some of her friends took it upon themselves to paint over the damage Sunday evening, concerned with a message of hate continuing to exist.

The mural at the Urban Art Gallery was completely painted over, while Semple and her partner Lys used paint from Humanity in Art to conduct a patchwork repair of the rainbow crosswalk.

“If someone wants to deface a crosswalk, you have to come back and paint two more or paint them brighter or create a new mural, add more pride, more joy, more rainbow and show the community we’re not backing down, we got you,” Semple said.

She said while Nanaimo has made a lot of headway and progress as a community, the act over the weekend showed there was still a long way to go.

“There is still violence and discrimination issues around education in schools, access to washrooms, employment discrimination and there’s still of acts of violence and hate crimes in Nanaimo and targets the community.”

Semple added she was very disappointed the graffiti was allowed to remain on the crosswalk for days before volunteers painted over it.

“It’s something that needs to be stomped out immediately…swift and strong action against this is the first line of defence against these sort of behaviours and attitudes taking root in your city.”

Bill Sims, City general manager of engineering and public works, said it was “really unfortunate” the crosswalk was vandalized, with crews scheduled to begin re-painting the lines on Tuesday, July 6.

He said the decision not to deal with the graffiti immediately over the weekend was perhaps not the best one and could force a tweak to how the city handle’s graffiti moving forward.

“Our current policy says if there’s derogatory, racist or hateful language that we’d respond right away and rehabilitate whatever it was. This being the weekend and being a symbol as opposed to derogatory language, that’s the sharpening of the policy we’d like to do.”

Sims said had the graffiti interfered with how the crosswalk operated, it would have been dealt with much quicker by crews on Saturday.

The painting scheduled for Tuesday is designed to be a temporary fix until the intersection is completely redesigned under a pilot project which is set to replace aging traffic light infrastructure.

Sims said when that project goes ahead, more durable thermo-plastic paint would be used to re-create the rainbow crosswalk.

Nanaimo RCMP are conducting an investigation into the incident and were aided by security camera footage from a business at the Bastion St./Commercial St. intersection.

Cst. Gary O’Brien said police have images of a person of interest in what they’re referring to as “hate motivated mischief.”

He is described as in his mid-30’s with short brown hair and was in the area around 3 or 4 a.m. on Saturday.

Police believe the man in this picture is responsible for defacing a rainbow crosswalk in downtown Nanaimo. (Nanaimo RCMP)

“If a suspect is positively identified and charges laid, this factor may be considered by the courts as an aggravating factor,” Cst. Gary O’Brien said in a statement.

Destruction of the art pieces is spurring local LGBTQ2+ community members to fundraise for a new, larger mural space to replace the old one on Wallace St.

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

alex.rawnsley@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alex.rawnsley