Fifteen graves were vandalized Easter weekend at the Lebret Cemetery in Lebret, a small village about an hour west of Regina.
Headstones were pushed down, smashing on impact.
Vanessa Hayword and her daughter traveled from out of town to find their great aunt’s and great grandmother’s headstones were deliberately destroyed.
“I was happy to see my dad’s headstone stood strong, however the other family members didn’t make it so well… I was shocked at how many stones had been knocked over,” Hayword said.
“It’s disrespectful, I want to know who did it and I want them to pay for it.”
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It’s especially disturbing to Mayor Ralph Blondeau, who spends hours volunteering to maintain the cemetery.
“Let them rest, they’ve done their days work… to me these are people (vandals) that got nothing between the ears, they don’t use it (their brain), they don’t use common sense,” Blondeau said.
The damage to the headstones will cost $100 each, or about $1500 to repair all of them. The mayor is turning to the community to help cover those costs and is asking people to donate to the cemetery fund.
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“This will drain a bit of it and anybody that would like to donate to the cemetery fund is welcome to do so,” Blondeau said.
It’s still unknown who the vandals were. RCMP are investigating, and are asking anyone with any information.
But for Hayword, the damage is already done.
“In the last 34 years, I brought my kids down here as they were born, this is how they know grandpa Kenney, is here, this place, and they’re going to have this awful memory too.”
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