When Tyler Johnstone noticed the word 鈥渕osque鈥� spray painted in yellow on a public washroom along Highway 16 his gut told he couldn鈥檛 just ignore it.
The Edmonton man was on his way home from Jasper on April 19 when he noticed the graffiti around 9 a.m. near Jasper House and decided he needed to do something about it.
鈥淚 drove past it and I drove for about five minutes and I thought about it and I had to turn around and come back,鈥� Johnstone said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just disgusting.鈥�
Initially he said he was going to try and scrape it off, but decided against it because that would have damaged the building.
Instead the 28-year-old covered up the graffiti with venting tape before calling Parks Canada.
Johnstone subsequently posted a video on Facebook, which was viewed thousands of times and garnered dozens of supportive comments.
鈥淗ate only incites more hate, it doesn鈥檛 do any good,鈥� Johnstone said in a follow-up interview.
鈥淭he big thing for me is do unto others as you want done unto you, it鈥檚 plain and simple and applies to everything in life, but especially this. If this was your religion you wouldn鈥檛 want this smeared across a washroom.鈥�
Parks Canada confirmed it received a call about the graffiti and after inspecting other facilities in the area staff found a similar message on the walls of two other washrooms.聽 All have been or are in the process of being addressed.
Paul Clarke
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