CORNWALL – Someone has vandalized the cenotaph at Legion Memorial Park in Cornwall.
The culprit or culprits used dark green paint to scribe a scrawling set of initials across the date stamp, marking the time those who served in World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
It’s not clear when the vandalism took place but the act has drawn a furor from people on social media.
“I have never been as angry as I was to see this,” resident Michelle Charbonneau Bruyere wrote in a Facebook posting Sunday night.
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 297 President Linda Fisher first learned of the graffiti after receiving a call from Cornwall Newswatch.
“It’s just amazing because I was talking to an ex-serviceman by email and then to get this phone call just blows me away,” Fisher told CNW Sunday night.
She said vandalism has been a problem before at the cenotaph.
“A couple of years ago we had the same thing. A couple of years ago somebody, I don’t know how they did it, had climbed up and put duct tape across the soldier’s eyes,” she said.
She also noted another case where somebody had put graffiti on the back of the monument.
The Royal Canadian Legion had the city take care of removing the duct tape but somebody had to be hired to clean up the graffiti.
There are no cameras monitoring Legion Memorial Park but Fisher believes maybe there should be.
Following a call from CNW around 9 p.m., Cornwall police were sending an officer down to Legion Memorial Park to investigate.
Since the site of the cenotaph is city property, the City of Cornwall would be the victim in the police investigation.
Saddened to see the Cenotaph vandalized, especially as a new soldier. It is a monument to our glorious dead and deserves the utmost respect.
— Justin Towndale (@JTowndale) July 11, 2016
