Graffiti found in downtown Kamloops Nov. 25, 2016.

(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - Racially-charged graffiti has been found twice in Kamloops over the past two weeks but city groups are not concerned about an increase in such behaviour.

A racist message was written at Arthur Stevenson Elementary on Nov. 21 and a swastika was found in two locations downtown Friday, Nov. 25. Kamloops Graffiti Task Force executive director Ronnie Bouvier says racial graffiti is uncommon and hesitates to call this a spike, nor to compare it to incidents south of the U.S. border.

“Nothing has increased since the (U.S.) election,” she says. “And I’ve been watching.”

Compared to last year she says the city’s at “status quo.” She suspects someone was lookign for attention for the Nov. 26 Santa Parade.

“We found some swastikas earlier in the year, none were done properly though,” she says.

In the United States many people reported an increase in racist messages since Donald Trump's election victory.

In Kamloops's downtown core, Alexis Proulx with the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association Customer Care and Patrol team says in the last year, racist or hateful messages were rare. Only once or twice a month does the team see hate language on downtown city walls.

Kamloops Immigrant Services executive director Paul Lagace says his organization hasn’t heard of any new concerns from those using the organization’s resources.

“We haven’t noted anything lately,” he says. “I don’t think we have to be concerned.”

He thinks most of the racist graffiti seen in Kamloops comes from people venting, but who don’t want to say anything online for fear of being connected to racism.

While there may be the odd report of graffiti, police spokesperson Cpl. Jodi Shelkie says it’s rarely brought to the RCMP’s attention.

“Even if it’s something directed towards a certain group it’s often not reported to us,” she says.

Police find it difficult to pursue graffiti issues in general unless someone is caught in the act, Shelkie says, and if someone is caught they typically end up with a mischief charge.

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