Kathleen Saylors, Centretown News
Repainted mural at Bank and SomersetA mural dedicated to trans women of colour on the corner of Bank and Somerset streets was defaced Thursday morning, before quickly being restored by community members.
The mural, which read “Black Lives Matter,” was defaced with the words “Racist Bullshit” and “All Lives Matter,” according to pictures circulating on Twitter.
By Thursday afternoon, the mural had been painted over in white with “Black Lives Matter” restored, and the inscription “If all lives matter, why are the stories of trans women of colour continually erased?”
Thomas McVeigh, president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, tweeted a photo of the defaced mural shortly after 3 a.m. on Thursday morning. By 12:30 p.m. that afternoon, he tweeted that the mural was being repaired.
Members of BlakCollectiv and Black Lives Matter Ottawa designed this mural, as well as a mural in remembrance of Sandra Bland on the public graffiti wall on Slater Street.
Adae B, a member of BlakCollectiv, said the Bank Street mural was later defaced again, when red paint was splashed across the new message.
Adae added that the original graffiti happened several days ago, and it has only escalated since then until today.
“It was repaired then defaced again,” Adae said. “People are fixing it up to make less violent to look at.”
Earlier this summer, the Sandra Bland mural was also defaced with the words “All Lives Matter.” Bland was a black woman who died while in police custody in Texas. That mural has also now been restored.