- Hub staff

For the last several weeks, Owen Sound residents have been reporting misogynist, racist and homophobic graffiti in several locations in the city.

Owen Sound Police have been very responsive – they recognize that an increase in such “self expression”, and any willingness to allow it to remain visible especially on City property, reflects the community. In turn, the police report it to the City's Public Works Department whose responsibility it is to remove it from public property.

When an individual woman was named with a sexist slur, and then a racist slur was added, the thin paint-over was not enough. The Women's House Serving Bruce and Grey took action, covering such language with a call to action – a poster providing phone numbers for support, contact information for reporting such graffiti, and the following text:

When misogynistic, racist, homophobic, and other oppressive words cover our streets it says something about our community. It says THINGS NEED TO CHANGE and we are all part of the solution. STOP THE HATE. Educate yourself, others, and those responsible for private/city property of the importance of cleaning it up and addressing the problem. Degrading language perpetuates violence.

Before too long, the poster was burned off the wall, but not before someone had received the message, and created some wall art of their own.

This is our community – our home. Things need to change, and we're all part of the solution.