'Homophobic' and 'racist' graffiti is 'disgusting'

As the owner of Bureau Group in Sudbury, Nico Taus is all about pushing the message of branding oneself to reflect one's own values and beliefs.

However, the message being delivered in the recent rash of graffiti to litter Sudbury's downtown core is certainly delivering the wrong kind of message. While many of those messages are illegible, there are several that have very strong and negative connotations, he said.

“Kill Fags” is one particular message that is creeping up on buildings and fence poles, and there is no artistic “merit” in such a messages, he said. Taus has dabbled in graffiti before. He said graffiti artists do what they do to get noticed.

“When I think of graffiti art, I think of something with artistic merit, something that adds to the environment, not something that takes away from it,” he said. “This is just mindless vandalism. Graffiti is controversial no matter where you go, but this particular graffiti is disgusting.”

Taus said he first noticed the messages on April 30 on his way into work. He was “blown away” by the hateful messages, because “you don't really see that kind of stuff in this community, usually.” His co-workers also took note of the graffiti, he said.

He brought it to the attention of the city, but the response has been somewhat disappointing, he said.

“I thought the city would have it covered up within a day or two,” he said. “Now, more than a week has gone by and the messages are still there.”

Taus said he tweeted images of the graffiti to the city to find out just how long it would take to remove the “homophobic” and “racist” messages, and the response was to call the city and file a report. That isn't an appropriate response, he said.

“The average person isn't going to take the time to report this to the city,” Taus said. “I thought once we pointed it out on Twitter, they would send out crews to clean it up.”

Taus said he admits he may be more prone to noticing graffiti, and that most people just tend to ignore it and go about their daily business, but when derogatory terms are clearly legible on some of the busiest streets in the city, it sends the wrong image to residents and visitors alike, he said.

Phone calls to the city have not yet been returned.

Greater Sudbury Police Service is well aware of the situation, Const. Meghan O'Malley said. From a police perspective, graffiti is a crime and it's punishable under the Criminal Code as mischief, where anyone wilfully causes damage to another person's property.

Graffiti is the defacing of any property, whether public or private, and that could include anything from sketching to painting – anything that is done without the owner's consent, she added.

In this particular instance, there is potential for even greater penalties if police are able to identify the person responsible for “communicating words that are derogatory toward a certain part of the population,” O'Malley said.

That would fall under the hate crimes section of the Criminal Code, but police would have to be able to identify the suspect and determine the motivation behind the crime, she said.

For now, Taus said he is hopeful of a speedy resolution from the city, because this weekend gives way to a large Francophone book conference, Salon du Livre, which will draw to Sudbury people from all over northern Ontario. The graffiti doesn't paint a picture of a welcoming city, and it would be shameful if they had to see these messages while they were walking through the downtown, he said.

Posted by Arron Pickard