A City of Richmond crew is being tasked to repair the rainbow crosswalk on Minoru Boulevard, after it appeared to be vandalized Monday night.
A man calling himself James posted on Twitter photos of the damage, which showed thin black tracks in an “X” shape.
The post sparked disgust from many Richmondites, including Coun. Michael Wolfe, who reported the incident to the relevant city department.
City spokesperson Clay Adams confirmed to the Richmond News that the crosswalk – close to Minoru and Granville Avenue – appears to have been “deliberately marked overnight.
“It is extremely disappointing that a person or persons would do this, but city crews will address the situation as soon as possible.”
"Discrimination" not acceptable
James said on his post that “Discrimination should not be acceptable in our community…this is discrimination & it isn’t good - someone went out of their way to do this.”
The crosswalk was painted in July 2019 and has been relatively vandalism-free, compared to other similar crosswalks in other municipalities across the province.
In August, 2019, however, posters glued to a wall close to the crosswalk, in English and Chinese, warned people about so called “pedosexual right” — sex between adults and minors.
The posters included rainbows, icons of adults and a child and a message about resisting “these criminal child predators, their child abuse, and their anti-human agenda.”
In July 2018 - a few yards away from the current site of the crosswalk – the steps to the Richmond Cultural Centre were defaced with biblical references, 24 hours after rainbow colours were chalked on to mark Pride Week.
