By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The town of Sutton plans to hire a new community outreach worker and implement an online graffiti reporting system as part of a graffiti prevention plan announced at the May 7 council meeting.

Élizabeth Deit is the director of recreation, community life and culture at the town of Sutton. She explained that for the past several years, Sutton has been dealing with a growing graffiti problem, including graffiti with hateful messages. In April, a construction cone was burned on the new basketball court, damaging its composite surface and requiring the replacement of seven tiles. This winter, new bollards along the bike path were tagged, forcing several clean-ups; just recently, according to the municipality, graffiti was discovered in the washrooms in the park chalet. The town has had to shoulder cleanup costs for vandalism.

Deit said the town needed a “game plan” to manage vandalism. That game plan, she explained, will focus on prevention and intervention, rather than punishing people who create illegal graffiti.  

The town plans to scale up “rapid and systematic” graffiti removal on public property, share information on the town website and notice boards to raise awareness and encourage reporting of vandalism, hold workshops for at-risk populations on the consequences of illegal graffiti in collaboration with the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), increase protection and surveillance of areas at risk of vandalism, establish an online reporting tool and promote public art projects, such as murals and “legal graffiti,” to discourage illegal graffiti and “enable graffiti artists to participate in beautifying the town while increasing their sense of belonging.” The online reporting tool is already up and running (sutton.ca/vandalism) and most other elements of the plan will be implemented this summer.

The outreach worker will be tasked with speaking with people, particularly at-risk youth, who spend time in the municipal park on evenings and weekends. “When there’s an [official] presence in the park, there is no graffiti … but the SQ has a big territory to cover and they can’t be everywhere, ” Deit said.

“Vandalism affects a lot of departments [of the municipal administration] and the more people we have working together to address it, the better, and the more efficiently we can use the resources we have,” she said.

In a statement, the municipality noted that anyone who commits an act of vandalism in Sutton faces a fine of anywhere from $150 to $1,000 under the town’s peace, order and nuisance bylaw, and anyone who “willfully damages or destroys property” could be charged with mischief under the Criminal Code; if convicted, they face a prison term of two to 10 years and a criminal record.

People who notice graffiti on public property in Sutton are encouraged to report it using the online reporting tool. Graffiti on private property can be reported to local law enforcement at 450-310-4141.