Possible hate crime at Cambridge International Street Art Festival

The Waterloo Regional Police Service is investigating a possible hate crimeafter racist graffiti was scrawled on a piece commissioned by the Cambridge International Street Art Festival.

The mural was a work in progressby visual artist Evond Blake,who works under the pseudonym MEDIAH.

"He left his artwork on Saturday at about 11:30 p.m., and when he returned to it on Sunday morning, he found that it had been written over and a hateful message was on it. It was graffitiedovernight," said Alana Russell, spokeswoman for the WRPS.

When contacted by CBC News, Blake declined to comment.

According a post by him Sunday morning on Facebook, Blake said festival organizers suggested he paint over the message, and continue on with his work.

He decided to leave it as-is.

By Monday afternoon, the photo had more than 1,700 comments and 1,308 shares. Some people posted negative comments under the photo, some blamed youth for the vandalism,while others offered apologies for the graffiti.

"Just know many [people] here in KW region and surrounding areas love all races and think your talent is deserving of positive recognition and should not be vandalized by ignorant excuses of [people]. Head up and move on is the best thing to do and I agree with leaving it as is," one person wrote.

"It's disgusting. And embarrassing to the human race," another person wrote. "I am so sorry this happened to you. Thank you for trying to bring your spirit and love to our disgraceful city."

Graffiti a possible hate crime

Detectivesare investigating and looking into the context of the message, Russell said.

"[It] does have some hate crime connotations to it," Russell said. Investigators continue to look for witnesses who may have seen something at the riverfront in Galtlate Saturday.

As forBlake, he seems determined not to let the incident stop him from creating art. Hepostedan image to Facebook on Monday morning of a new, collaborative work done in Cambridge.