Rainbow crosswalks at four locations in Petrolia were found covered in white paint and the words “Fear God” were stencilled in black paint on nearby sidewalks, officials say.
Petrolia Mayor Brad Loosley said town workers were called out Sunday with power washers to remove the paint at a crosswalk next to Victoria Hall and one near Lambton Central Collegiate.
“It’s not vandalism,” he said of the defacing of a symbol of LGBTQ inclusion. “It’s hatred.”
There was similar damage at a crosswalk at Queen Elizabeth II public school and one at Charlotte Eleanor Engelhart Hospital. The Lambton Kent District school board and hospital handled those fixes, respectively, Loosley said.
“I’m really sorry, almost sickened, to see that – especially so many,” Loosley said. “That’s not Petrolia. The idea of those crosswalks is that everyone is welcome, no matter what.”
Loosley said the incidents won’t deter the town from “welcoming diversity and fostering equality, like we do for everyone.”
The crosswalks were likely covered in white paint by someone using a roller some time early Sunday, the mayor said. The “fear God” messages were painted with a stencil.
Town workers were able to remove the paint with a power washer, he said.
Footage from surveillance cameras at Victoria Hall and the high school was expected to be turned over to Lambton OPP, Loosley said.
Police ask anyone with information to call Lambton OPP at 1-888-310-1122, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Having four incidents of “hate-motivated vandalism” in a small community “is a scary thought for queer people in that area,” said Crystal Fach, founder of Sarnia-based Diversity Ed, an organization working to see safer and inclusive spaces created for residents and their families.
“It puts people on edge, and it’s hate,” Fach said.
While there’s been the odd case of vehicles spinning their tires through the rainbow crosswalk near the town’s high school, the mayor said there have been few such acts of vandalism.
There has been a spate of LGBTQ-related vandalism in recent years across Southwestern Ontario, much of it in rural communities. In June, for example, a rainbow-coloured boardwalk in Tillsonburg was defaced twice in two weeks, angering the town’s mayor.