Police are investigating after multiple buildings in Greater Victoria were spray-painted with graffiti.
On Monday morning, the Oak Bay Police Department said it received reports of graffiti at St. Phillips Church on Eastdowne Road in Oak Bay and that officers discovered “several tags” on the building. They also received reports about graffiti on a number of other buildings in the Carnarvon Park area.
“Efforts are underway to remove the graffiti. We are attempting to locate video surveillance,” said Sgt. Mark Fisher of the Oak Bay Police Department.
Fisher said multiple other buildings along the border of Oak Bay and Saanich were also tagged with graffiti.
“We are aware of some buildings in Saanich near the Oak Bay border that were also tagged. Saanich Police is handling the investigation of the buildings that were tagged in the Saanich area,” he said.
Some of the words and phrases on the buildings included “Land Back” and “RCMP racist colonial malignant peons,” according to Fisher.
Ray Bernoties, chief of the Oak Bay Police Department, said on social media Monday morning that red paint and orange paint was used by the person or persons responsible.
Elsewhere, St. Andrew’s Church in Victoria had messages written in red paint on its doors Monday morning. Messages included the words “murderer” and “genocide” written on the Blanshard Street side of the building.
However, VicPD told CHEK News that it had not received any reports about churches or other buildings in the community being spray-painted with graffiti.
Nicholas Pescod
