Graffiti a significant problem in Cape Breton

A doctor’s office and a fire station are among the buildings along the busiest streets of Sydney Mines, N.S., been tagged with significant graffiti in recent months.

"It's maddening to see,” said area councillor Gordon MacDonald, who noted new dugouts at the community’s largest baseball field along with the former post office building on Main Street have also been vandalized.

MacDonald was angered to see an old caboose on display outside the Sydney Mines Heritage Museum tagged with graffiti.

Summer students had recently given the generations-old caboose a fresh coat of paint.

"Imagine what the students felt like when they came in the next day and found they spent the whole day Friday doing the work and trying to get it ready.. and then they see what they've done, vandalized like that,” MacDonald said.

In the neighbouring community of North Sydney, a long-abandoned former post office is a major target. It's located next to the community’s cenotaph and is also across the street from Royal Canadian Legion Branch 19.

Fires have sometimes been set inside the vacant building, too. Legion members have tried to get the structure torn down or dealt with but so far, there has been no luck.

"To have the cenotaph looking as nice as it does, and then to have that place looking the way that looks,” said Henry “Harry” Taylor, Branch 19’s second vice president. "Especially when it comes to Remembrance Day and all the banners are up, and people are walking through town, they've got to look at that across the street. It's not nice."

MacDonald said the Cape Breton Regional Police has been notified and is checking surveillance cameras near tagged locations.

He noted catching culprits for something like this is not always easy.

"They have to report it,” MacDonald said of people who witness or find damaging graffiti. "I'd be more than happy to sit down and discuss a graffiti wall, but in the meantime we can't have our businesses looking the way they're looking because of this."

MacDonald also asked anyone who might recognize the graffiti tags to speak up, adding there isn't much time - or money - to clean it all up with the summer tourism season just around the corner.

For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.