Construction firm condemns racist graffiti found at Michael Garron Hospital site

A construction company overseeing work at Michael Garron Hospital in East York says they are investigating after racist graffiti was found in a washroom stall at the site.

“EllisDon condemns this despicable racist act. Our people are not just our employees — they are our family,” said spokesperson Dustin Luchka in a statement Friday. “We know we need to do better to protect their safety, both physically and emotionally.”

Luchka said upon discovery of the graffiti, the area was boarded-up and the racist messages removed.

“We have initiated an investigation and have already begun to upgrade the security and surveillance on the site, both to catch these criminals and to ensure that every worker is safe from discrimination, hate and bigotry,” he said.

A spokesperson with the hospital acknowledged that “an act of racism” occurred on their property.

“We recently responded to an act of racism that occurred on the EllisDon construction site on our property and this hateful act is a further demonstration that this problem is systemic in the construction industry,” said Hannah Ward.

EllisDon said they are offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who may have information that will lead to the identification of the people involved in the incident.

“EllisDon acknowledges that systemic racism in the construction industry is real and – with our partner unions and subcontractors – we have initiated both long and short-term measures to root it out wherever it lies, and eliminate it,” Luchka said. “This will take time and sustained effort by many people, but we have already begun, and we will succeed.”

The Residential Construction Council of Ontario said it was disappointed to see this continuing “unacceptable behaviour.”

“This hateful racist act is further demonstration that anti-black racism is systemic in the construction industry,” the association said in a tweet. “We will continue to work with our members and industry to combat racism in construction.”

The discovery of the racist graffiti comes after the discovery of two nooses at the site in June.

On Sept. 24th, two more nooses were found, however, police said on Thursday they believe the incident is not believed to be connected to any of the previous incidents and it is not being treated as hate-motivated.