Plans are already underway to restore a Pride mural in Regina’s Cathedral area that was vandalized with human feces and marker over the weekend.
According to Cathedral Area Community Association spokesperson Paul Dechene, the family which painted the Pride Progress flag at the neighborhood centre last week are returning to paint over the damage as soon as they have time to do so.
“They had a lot of fun. They were really proud of the work and then to have this done was really disappointing,” Dechene said Monday of the “disgusting” vandalism, which was discovered just before the Queen City Pride parade was set to begin Saturday.
“Part of our job as a community association is to show our community is welcoming to everybody. It means we have to put up things like these Pride flags, but also when they get vandalized, because that’s going to happen, we have to clean them up.”
The community was first alerted to the vandalism Saturday morning by the Cathedral Pet Shop manager Erinn Brouzes, who was walking her kids down 13th Avenue to participate in the Pride parade.
“In the beginning we didn’t really know what it was. But after getting closer, having to explain to my three kids, all under 14, what it was was really difficult,” Brouzes said, adding that not only was there excrement present, but it appeared to have been smeared about the mural.
“My first reaction was just adrenaline, and I started explaining to my children that this is why Pride exists. There are still people who are mean and hateful in the world.”
Initially Brouzes filled up a few buckets of water to try to clean up the mess herself, but it proved stubborn.
She contacted police, who told her to report the vandalism to the city to arrange for a cleanup. She said the city was able to clean away the feces by the time the Pride parade had completed.
The city was unable to wash off the obscenities written in marker though, which were also scrawled upon a statue nearby.
Dechene said the family repainting the mural hopes to cover that vandalism as well.
“We just find it really important, especially with things like this, that people still know we support them, our community stands together on this and everyone is welcome in cathedral,” Brouzes added.
Brouzes and Dechene added that this isn’t the first time Pride symbols have been vandalized in the area.
Since the Cathedral Area Community Association began encouraging local businesses to display Pride flags in their windows in recent years, the symbols have become common. But several of those businesses, such as the Cathedral Pet Shop and 33 1/3 Coffee Roasters have had their windows vandalized with marker after they began displaying flags.
Queen City Pride Co-chair Dan Shier said that while these incidents pale in comparison to the support the 2SLGBTQ+ community receives during Pride, they serve as evidence that “there’s still work to be done.”
“It’s always concerning to see acts of vandalism. It just goes to show that not everybody is onboard with supporting the community and as a result it really stresses the importance of Pride and the educations and awareness that it brings,” he said.
“We are talking about real people and communities who have been affected for decades by abuse and inequality. And we do still need to reassure each other that our community is there.”
On Queen City Pride week as a whole, Shier said the community was grateful to be “together again,” after two years of restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Overall it was a pretty good year for a first year back.”