Petrolia residents woke up to vandalism Sunday morning as four Pride crosswalks were targeted overnight on Sept. 21.
The Town of Petrolia shared on Facebook the news writing in a statement, “not only is this unacceptable, but it is also unwelcome in our community as we strive to welcome all people to find a place of belonging.”
Mayor Brad Loosley commented by saying, “this will not be tolerated. Hate has no home in Petrolia. As we focus on inclusivity and acceptance of all, we will not allow this discriminatory visual to deter the town from welcoming diversity and fostering equality.”
Founder of Diversity Ed, Crystal Fach, says it’s hard when instances like this happen in a smaller community like Petrolia.
“When something like this happens it makes queer and trans people in that community and even outside that community feel on edge, feel unsafe,” Fach tells The Journal. “This is a deliberate act, someone took a lot of time, that's a big crosswalk, to go over there and deface it like that.”
Fach says these deliberate acts are a result of the protests put on by right-wing groups, who were speaking out against allied curriculum being taught in schools. So it’s no surprise, she says, that two of the sidewalks vandalized were outside Petrolia schools.
“It says they want to erase us, like you're not welcome here,” says Fach.
Fach says she knows that hate acts like these aren’t a reflection of the entire community, but a loud few.
“They're the ones that get the attention, and that's what they wanted. And unfortunately, we had to give it to them, because we have to show people that this is not OK,” explains Fach.
“I think that's what they want. They want to see, they want to scare, they want to push it away. And they think that acts like this are going to happen. I don't know what they thought, maybe that Petrolia would somehow erase that crosswalk. But that's not going to happen”
Community members and workers were quick to get to work and clean the crosswalks of the vandalism, with The Town of Petrolia sharing photos of the work being done.
“They [the vandals] think that they're speaking for the whole community. But as we saw today, that was cleaned up real quick and people were really upset and people from outside of Petrolia were even like, we'll come and clean it up,” says Fach.
“They didn't wait until tomorrow when all the kids had to walk to school and see that. They were like, we're cleaning this up today. And that was a beautiful thing.”
One of the targeted crosswalks, at LCCVI Petrolia, which is located at the corner of Dufferin Avenue and Queen Street was painted only last year. And Fach explains this and all crosswalks are important symbols for 2SLGBTQIA+ members and allies in the community.
“I think that these are just symbols for young people or people who aren’t out to say it’s OK to be yourself. We need to see that,” says Fach.
“It's a statement to say you're safe to be here in Petrolia and we want you to be here and we see you…I would love to live in a world where we didn't need to have a flag and we didn't need to have a crosswalk and we didn't need to have GSAs (gay–straight alliances), or that we didn’t need to have those things but we do because there is still so much anti-LGBTQ hate out there.”
These four acts aren’t the only ones to rattle the small community. In 2022 a Pride flag from Truckin Mamma’s On the Run food truck was tied in a noose at the Petrolia Fair.
“These are hateful symbols, and if we don't start coming forward and saying who's doing these things, they're not going to stop, and it might stop the next person from doing it because there's a consequence attached, and right now, we don't have them. A lot of times, we don't even name them as hate-motivated acts,” Fach says.
“Things are vandalized. And that's the language of years. Yes, it was vandalism, but it was hate-motivated. They didn't just paint over a crosswalk with no rainbow flag in it. They picked that flag intentionally to deface it, to silence our community, and to scare people.”
Fach says it is important for people who might know something or have information about these acts to come forward to police or Crime Stoppers.
“Coming forward is putting a foot down and saying that we're not gonna tolerate this. This is not welcome in our community. This hate is not welcome here.”
Anyone with information is being asked to contact the OPP at their non-emergency number 1-888-310-1122.