240-day sentence for man behind racist graffiti at Vancouver Chinese Cultural Centre

Yves Castonguay is shown in a photo from the Vancouver Police Department.

A man who admitted to scrawling racist graffiti on a Vancouver cultural centre will serve another 79 days in jail.

Yves Castonguay was sentenced in a Vancouver courtroom Wednesday to 240 days in custody. He'd already served 161 days, so with credit for pre-trial time behind bars, just 79 days remain.

Additionally, he was given three years' probation, the B.C. Prosecution Service told CTV News.

Castonguay pleaded guilty earlier this fall to mischief to property in connection with graffiti found on Vancouver's Chinese Cultural Centre in 2020.

A second charge, of wilfully promoting hatred, was stayed following his sentence.

Castonguay was identified as a suspect in March in connection with the incident in the city's Chinatown neighbourhood on April 2, 2020.

Surveillance camera images were released by police about a month after the graffiti was discovered. One of the messages sprayed on the walls of the centre read, "kill all," and another said, "Let's put a stop to (anti-Chinese slur) coming to Canada."

Another message read, "Drive them out of Canada."

It was an incident police described as "disheartening," during a year that saw a record number of hate crimes reported, many of them directed against victims of Asian descent. Vancouver saw a 717 per cent increase in crimes involving hate, bias and prejudice last year, according to Vancouver Police Const. Tania Visintin.

Castonguay was identified and charged earlier this year. He then failed to appear in court in April, and a warrant was issued for his arrest yet again.

He was located and taken back into custody, then later pleaded guilty to the mischief charge.