Marna Nightingale
Residents of Centretown and the Glebe have been out postering to show support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and to demand justice for, among too many others, George Floyd, killed by police in Minneapolis in May; Regis Korchinski Paquet, killed in Toronto during an encounter with police, also in May; and Abdirahman Abdi, killed during his July 2016 arrest in Ottawa (closing arguments in the manslaughter trial of Ottawa Police Constable Daniel Montsion have been postponed due to the pandemic.)
Almost as quickly as the posters go up, though, they’re being taken down.
A small group of downtown residents gathered in the Glebe the night of Monday, June 14 to put up yet another round of posters, this time with staples as well as tape, and supplemented with chalked slogans of support.
The group began postering and chalking at 9 p.m.—and by 10:30 p.m. all but two of the newest batch of posters were already gone.
Downtown Ottawa has been telling stories about poster vigilantes for years (see our April 2014 story on this controversy) but typically they act against posters advertising businesses or shows. These removals have a different feel.
Marnie Wellar, who has put up at least three sets of BLM posters, said she confronted a man removing posters on Bank near Third on Monday night and had a loud argument with him about his reasons for removing them.
As Wellar was postering, others had spread out to chalk messages on the sidewalks, posts, and planters of the Glebe, determined to at least make life difficult for anyone who wanted to obliterate the messages.
“It’s dispiriting for us to see so much effort wasted, but it has to be worse for Black or otherwise racialized residents of the Glebe to see this happening,” one said. “If posters aren’t safe, how can people be?”
As of June 15, the chalk was still there, although Wellar had had an argument with police about whether chalking was legal.
Several Glebe residents had set up web security cameras to capture images of anyone who violates city bylaws by removing posters. Section 22 of the Signs on City Roads bylaw says only the original poster or authorized NCC or city staff can remove lawfully placed posters.