STURGEON COUNTY - Sturgeon County’s mayor says she’s frustrated that someone smashed a rainbow-coloured chair just outside of St. Albert that was meant to help people in mental distress.
Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw issued a statement Aug. 1 on the destruction of the rainbow chair in Bellerose Park over the July 29-30 weekend. Bellerose Park is just north of the Sturgeon Valley Golf & Country Club off Bellerose Drive.
The wooden deck chair was one of several painted in rainbow colours by the Sturgeon County Youth Committee earlier this year. The chairs were placed in four spots in the county including Bellerose Park in early June to mark Pride Week, and served as places for quiet reflection. The chairs featured plaques with contact information for the county’s Living Well counselling services.
Photos shared by the county showed that the chair had been reduced to a pile of painted planks over the weekend.
In the statement, Hnatiw said she was “saddened and frustrated” that the Bellerose Park chair had been vandalized. The chairs were painted by Sturgeon County youths as an expression of public service and community pride, and were meant to be enjoyed by all residents and to help anyone who was in mental distress.
“We are disappointed by this act of ignorance, intolerance, and destruction,” Hnatiw said.
“Sturgeon County, my council colleagues, and I strongly condemn this act of vandalism. It is not reflective of our community and values.”
The Bellerose Park chair joins a long list of Pride-themed works of public art that have been vandalized this summer in Canada. The rainbow crosswalk in front of St. Albert Place was defaced last June 26 when someone in a red truck did a burnout on it, for example.
Hnatiw urged anyone with information about this vandalism to contact Protective Services at 780-939-8400 or the St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700.
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