By Angela Hill

Graffiti sends racist message

Mar 31, 2011 | 6:39 AM

There was an ugly message waiting for the owners of Embee Diamonds when they arrived to work, Wednesday morning.

“I went downstairs and wow, volia, welcome to P.A,” said Evert Botha, with the Prince Albert-based diamond company.

The message involved racist profanity and was written in blue bingo dabber ink.

While they don’t feel that the racism is targeted to them directly, Botha hoped for less racism after coming from South Africa.

“It’s the message more than ever. Moving to Canada from a country where these issues are very prevalent, and to have this happen, not on your door step, on your wall, it’s not nice,” he said.

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Police deal with graffiti on an ongoing basis in Prince Albert, said Sgt. Kelly McLean, with the Prince Albert police.

“On occasion we’ll see targeted messages, but racist, direct racist messages are very uncommon,” he said.

Police keep intelligence information on some graffiti and it is possible to carry out an investigation, but it’s not easy.

“By in large, it’s very random … and these investigations are very difficult,” McLean said.

“We try to encourage the property owners or the homeowners to go through city hall and take advantage of the paint and free supplies to cover it up as quickly as possible.”

Botha has sent an email with a photo of the message to the Mayor and said he plans to send one to police also.

“I’m just saying what’s being done about downtown, why should retailers and businesses downtown put up with this,” he said.

ahill@panow.com