Disturbing graffiti spray painted on Plateau buildings

CTV Montreal: Racist graffiti Police are looking for a person caught on surveillance camera spray painting racist graffiti in the Plateau.

Montreal police are investigating after some disturbing graffiti was discovered in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough on Tuesday.

The words 'Save Richard Spencer' and 'Jean-Francois Gariepy - King of the World' were painted on buildings on Laurier St.

Spencer is an American white supremacist leader and Gariepy, originally from Quebec, is a white nationalist who hosts a podcast.

One of the targeted establishments, Bar Sportif Laurier, captured surveillance video of a woman spray painting the message on the building.

The bar's owner is furious and said the person who painted these messages attempting to normalize white supremacy hit several buildings in the neighbourhood, including a police station. .

He said the video also shows several people walking by, and nobody attempts to stop the vandal.

Mayor Valerie Plante said Montrealers are denouncing these hateful messages.

"I always say that the best way to prevent that type of manifestation is by us, Montrealers, saying out and loud that we will not accept that type of incitation," said Plante.

She added that police are also investigating tips from the public about a Montreal man who encouraged people to join a neo-Nazi group.

"They're investigating and the way that people responded to that by finding out who that man was. To me, it’s the right way of doing it, so this is why I feel good that Montrealers are definitely against that type of attitude," she said.

The graffiti comes after a Gazette report that a Montreal man is a prominent neo-Nazi blogger and after a swastika flag was waved from a building in Park Extension during a May Day rally on May 1.

The far right in Quebec has been emboldened by groups such as La Meute, who have demonstrated openly over immigration, refugees, and other issues in recent months, said Benjamin Ducol, research manager for Montreal's Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence.

“The far right was seen like something that was quite active in the U.S. and in Europe, but I think in the past couple of months, we realize that there is indeed a far right in Canada,” said Ducol.

In spite of recent events, Ducol cautions these groups are still quite small, but are easily overblown online.

Gariepy went online to blame this graffiti on his anti-fascist opponents.

It’s possible, said Ducol.

“It can be also far left groups who want to embarrass far right groups in Montreal,” he said.