Windsor Pride leaders vow to keep speaking out after parade again marred by hate graffiti

CTV News

6 hours ago

CTV News obtained these photos of some of the graffiti found along the Windsor Pride Parade route on Aug. 10. Words targeting specific community groups have been blurred out. (Source: Ettoro Bonato & Derrick Biso)
During what was supposed to be one of the most colourful weekends of the year on Ottawa Street, community leaders say they were once again confronted with a familiar and exhausting problem — hate-motivated graffiti targeting both racial and 2SLGBTQ+ communities.
The reaction comes after Windsor police issued a news release this week asking for the public's help to identify a suspect caught on surveillance video defacing property during the Aug. 10 Pride Parade.
Photos obtained by CTV News show multiple electrical boxes and garbage cans along the route were marked with derogatory language aimed at both racial and 2SLGBTQ+ groups.
Windsor-Essex Pride Fest president Wendi Nicholson said that in the week and a half leading up to and including the parade, she has been contacted repeatedly by people flagging hateful graffiti along Ottawa Street.
While she could not remove it herself, she encouraged residents to report each case to Windsor police.
'To you, it might be just graffiti. To us, it's a threat,' she said.
'It makes us look over our shoulders every time we walk down the street.'
Nicholson said incidents like this are happening too often — and not just during Pride.
'It's getting tiring. You have your opinions of us and other ethnic groups? Keep it to yourself,' she said.
'How can anybody have so much hate in them anymore? It's saddening.'
She added that every year, the number of hate-related reports she hears about seems to grow.
Ottawa Street BIA chair Ettore Bonato said he first learned of the graffiti on the morning of the parade, when friends began sending him photos. He grabbed paint from his storage space and walked from Windermere Road to Parent Avenue, covering what he found.
'By the time I walked back, new words were already written on them,' he said.
Bonato believes Ottawa Street's mix of 2SLGBTQ+ residents, newcomers, and long-time ethnic communities has made it a recurring target.
'This type of hate graffiti, I find it a lot here,' he said.
'I fought 40 years ago for my rights, and now we have to fight again, because these people are just uneducated.'
Figures provided to CTV News by Windsor police show the number of reports is holding steady — and could surpass previous years. Police recorded 32 hate-motivated incidents in 2023 and 39 in 2024.
So far in 2025, there have been 37 reports, with four months still left in the year.
Nicholson said she will continue to speak out whenever these incidents occur, no matter how often it happens.
'I will come back every time, and I will speak out on it every time,' she said.
Bonato said the same determination applies to the community as a whole — that hate will not deter Ottawa Street from celebrating Pride openly and defiantly.