They won’t stand for it
Members of a Toronto church are fighting back after racist graffiti appeared twice on one of their buildings
The church community at St. Margaret’s Toronto has responded to a second instance of racist graffiti on their property with the formation of a new social justice committee.
The committee was launched shortly after volunteers at the Sixth St. Anglican church found the N-word scrawled on St. Margaret’s garden shed on Oct.12 for a second time in as many months — and just one day after a story appeared in The Etobicoke Guardian detailing the church’s discovery of the same racial epithet in the same location on Sept. 6.
“I was appalled when I heard, especially when you see how much that word hurts, how much it wounds people,” said Ellen Douglas, a volunteer Sunday school teacher at St. Margaret’s, near Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Islington Ave. She is one of three members of the congregation who have so far stepped up to help organize the committee.
“It’s all very well and fine to say that no one was targeted (by the graffiti), but the fact of the matter is that people in our community do feel targeted — and that, in my book, is not acceptable.”
Chief among those who feel singled out by this second “intentional and brazen” act of racism — which was promptly covered up with black paint after its discovery — is the church’s leader, Rev. Jacqueline Daley.
Daley, who became the first Black woman to hold a leadership position at St. Margaret’s back in May when she took over as its interim priest-incharge, said she no longer feels as safe at the church as she once did.
“What we don’t know is if this person (who is doing it) is mentally ill or if there’s something else going on. But I’m a woman and sometimes I’m here alone, so I’m definitely more mindful of that now than I was before,” Daley said, noting she’s been taking more safety precautions when coming and going from the church.
“That said, this is a community with a very open heart and people reacted in a
positive way. They have accepted the fact that we need to do work, and that’s why we’ve formed this social justice committee.”
Sharon Williams said she felt compelled to step up to help helm the new committee in an effort to alleviate some of the feelings of unease she and other members of the St. Margaret’s community have been experiencing over the last month and a half.
“N****r means n****r and I’m part of that population … I’m part of that target group, so it’s personal to me,” Williams said, noting that, in her 40 years in Canada, the racist graffiti incident has hit closest to home.
“My concern is that it not escalate into a violent outbreak or anything like that — because unfortunately, these incidents sometimes turn physically violent,” she added.
“With this committee, we’re trying to move forward and come up with some solutions on how to heal the community — solutions around education and ways we can all feel safer.”
To those ends, Williams said that one of the committee’s first orders of business is seeking out ways to improve safety measures at the church — including the possible installation of security cameras and sensored safety lights around the church, more shades and blinds on the windows to conceal the movements of people inside the church from passersby, as well as the launch of regular group walkabouts around the building to monitor any potential future graffiti.
“Safety is the major thing, because this is our community and we want to be able to walk around feeling safe, not looking over our shoulders — especially here, in this place where we come to pray and serve our Lord,” she said.
Another big priority of the committee will be establishing a protocol to follow in case of any future incidents “whether they be racist or in any other way discriminatory,” Douglas said.
“I’m a retired teacher, and we always had incident report checklists to fill out any time a person brought forward a concern,” she said.
“That way, there was a sense that any time there was a concern or complaint, that it was addressed and that it was seen to be addressed.”
Once the safety concerns and future protocol issues are dealt with, both Douglas and Williams said they’re looking forward to expanding the scope of the social justice committee to include more positive education initiatives and inclusivity projects.
“Making sure that everyone feels safe and welcome here at the church is important, because otherwise, what are we doing? What’s the point?” Douglas asked.
“Once we’ve addressed these egregious incidents, we’re looking forward to looking at more positive things, like how can we be as welcoming and as inclusive of all people as we possibly can.”