Residents near Barrie's Lampman Lane Community Centre discovered some shocking graffiti at a nearby skate park Friday morning.
According to a post on the Barrie Concerned Citizens Facebook page, the graffiti included the words 'White Lives Matter.'
The graffiti also included a large, black swastika — widely recognized as a symbol of the German Nazi Party, and SS bolts — a common white supremacist/neo-Nazi symbol derived from Schutzstaffel (SS) of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Also included is what appeared to be a target symbol spray-painted on a ramp at the west-end park, which is located in Barrie’s Letitia Heights neighbourhood.
“Hey so, I don’t know about you guys, but I'm pretty concerned about the fact that there's Nazi propaganda on the skate park next to my stepsons school,” wrote one person.
City of Barrie officials say that although they did not receive any reports from the public regarding this graffiti, municipal staff did see a social media post and “immediately went out to investigate."
“City crews will attempt to remove the graffiti right away. If it can’t be removed, it will be painted over,” said city spokesperson Scott LaMantia.
Barrie police also did not receive any calls regarding the incident, said Peter Leon, the department’s communications co-ordinator.
“If anybody sees where there is graffiti or inappropriate symbols have been painted, the proper authorities should be notified immediately to have it cleaned up,” he said.
Although the vandalism would be considered mischief under the Criminal Code, "it’s unacceptable," Leon said.
LaMantia added the city is encouraging the public to contact Service Barrie at 705-726-4242 or servicebarrie.ca whenever they come across graffiti — especially when the graffiti contains hateful messages like this one.
This also isn't the first time that skate park has been targeted with racist graffiti. A similar incident happened in April 2021.
