Father reveals son made bad decision by defacing Saskatoon rainbow crosswalk

SASKATOON — The father of a young man who left long tire skid marks on a Saskatoon crosswalk freshly painted with the hues of the LGBTQ community’s rainbow flag says his son didn’t realize what the colours mean to the city’s Pride festival.

A festival spokesman says the father contacted the OUTSaskatoon office after the marks were discovered on Monday.

Danny Papadatos says the man seemed sad and embarrassed when he revealed his 20-year-old son purposely made the marks, but didn’t realize the fallout his actions would cause.

Papadatos says the young man’s family is expected to release a public statement in the next couple of days and will cover the cost of cleaning and repainting the crosswalk.

About 50 people gathered on Tuesday to repair the damage, and a paint company donated some supplies to help with the work.

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The crosswalk was one of two that city workers painted in rainbow colours on the weekend.

Papadatos said the father’s call was emotional.

“I know it couldn’t have been easy for him and it couldn’t have been easy for the vandal to come forward — especially with everything that’s been going on social media,” he said. “So the way we started was just to talk about the courage that that took.”

Papadatos noted that it wasn’t an easy decision to clean up and noted there was discussion about leaving the tire marks as a reminder of the work that needs to be done when it comes to inclusivity.

He said the incident has brought out numerous discriminatory and hateful comments on social media toward the LGBTQ community.

“The community needs to know that we are behind them and that this isn’t us just brushing over someone’s mistake. It just shows and proves that we have a long way to go.”

The week-long Saskatoon Pride Festival kicks off Friday.

“We’re going to go on louder and prouder than ever,” Papadatos said.

(CTV Saskatoon)

The Canadian Press