MONTREAL -- Vandals have defaced a sculpture named after disgraced Quebec film director Claude Jutra.
The work, by late sculptor Charles Daudelin, had the words "Pepe Pedo" scrawled in red graffiti on it at a Montreal park that also bears Jutra's name.
"Pepe Pedo" translates roughly as "dirty old pedophile."
A Jutra biography released last week said he slept with boys believed to be 14 or 15 and Montreal La Presse published interviews with two men who were even younger when they were allegedly abused.
Some cities across the province are moving to strike the late film director's name from streets and other public places.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said last week the city planned to change the name Claude-Jutra Park and remove the now-vandalized statue, which was installed in 1997 at the corner of Clark and Prince Arthur streets downtown.
Jutra, whose films included "Mon oncle Antoine" and "Kamouraska," committed suicide in 1986 after battling Alzheimer's disease.
His name was also stricken last week from Quebec and Canadian film awards named for him.
On Tuesday, the organization that oversees the province's movie industry renamed the annual show that honours the best in Quebec cinema from the Jutra Awards to the Gala of Quebecois cinema.
Quebec Cinema says the change is temporary and a permanent name will be chosen later this year.
Last week, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, which had handed out the Claude Jutra Award for the year's best feature film by a first-time director, announced it was dropping his name.
