Toronto war memorial vandalized after Remembrance Day ceremony
Posted November 12, 2019 9:55 am.
Last Updated November 12, 2019 10:01 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO (680 NEWS) – Police in Toronto are investigating after a monument to Canadian soldiers was vandalized on Monday night.
Officers were notified of the incident at around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after hundreds had gathered at the cenotaph in downtown Toronto, near City Hall, for a Remembrance Day ceremony.
Blue writing was spray-painted on the front of the monument at some point overnight, which said “Ye broke faith” and on the back, “with us.”
The words appear to be from the poem “In Flanders Fields”.
“If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields,” the line reads.
The cenotaph honours Canadian soldiers who died at war, and was originally built after World War One. It stands in front of Old City Hall, an iconic downtown building that was once city hall and is now a courthouse.
Crews were on scene removing the vandalism in the early afternoon on Tuesday.
“It is just disgraceful and unacceptable that anybody would deface a public monument like this,” Mayor John Tory told reporters after hearing of the vandalism, which happened across the street from the building that houses his office.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also weighed in.
“Disgusting to see a monument to our heroic veterans disrespected by this shameful act of vandalism,” he said in a tweet.
