Police investigate hate-motivated graffiti
Ottawa police found themselves patrolling increasingly empty downtown streets on Sunday as the “Rolling Thunder” protest made good on plans to decamp from Canada’s capital, but the force did open an investigation after the scene of the day’s only formal event was defaced with graffiti targeting demonstrators.
Unlike in February, when throngs of protesters opposed to COVID-19 public health measures and the federal government choked Ottawa’s streets for weeks, scant traces of this weekend’s rallies remained on Sunday afternoon.
Roughly a dozen people milled around outside Parliament following a Sunday morning service at the nearby Capital City Bikers’ Church, the final scheduled event of the weekend-long rally.
The event drew hundreds of worshippers as police launched an investigation into vandalism that allegedly took place ahead of the gathering.
Bikers, “Rolling Thunder” rally supporters and other worshippers arrived at the church to find its brick exterior had been vandalized with spray-painted messages including “fascists” and “no haven for fascism.”
The Ottawa Police Service confirmed it is investigating “an incident of hate-motivated mischief at a religious institution” on Carillon Street, the same one where the church is located.
But the incident did little to suppress the spirits of the enthusiastic, peaceful crowd.
A four-piece band belted out soulful Christian rock songs while hundreds of worshippers, some wearing leather biker jackets with Canadian flags draped around their shoulders, waved their arms in the air.
Families, children and even dogs packed the darkened building, as purple flood lights and a stainedglass image of Jesus illuminated by the outside sun lit up the stage inside. A bar in the back of the Pentecostal church sold soft drinks, snacks and coffee, and a shop sold Biker Church T-shirts.
“You begin to talk about hell and — ‘Oh, you’re one of those religious fanatics, aren’t you?’ ” Pastor Rob McKee asked the crowd during his sermon on how hell exists. His long, grey beard spilled onto his buttonup plaid shirt, which he wore with a pair of loose-fitting jeans. “We all love the part that God is love, so if I was the enemy I would work really hard to try to get people to believe, no, that’s a scam, that’s fake news.”
McKee appeared to shrug off the graffiti and described the day as “church as usual,” but others who attended the service were more upset.
“It’s extremely insulting,” said Kimberly McGrath. “I had to let it brush off my shoulders, but for a lot of people it is traumatizing and it’s hurtful. It reminds us of what we have been going through, and being labelled as racist, misogynistic and anti-science.”
The Sunday morning service marked the last event in the weekend-long “Rolling Thunder” rally, organized in part by a group called Freedom Fighters Canada.