The debate over the merits of graffiti is as ancient as graffiti itself — evidence of which has been found as far back as Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
American writer Thornton Wilder in his book The Ides of March had this to say about ancient Roman graffiti:
“Second only to the master of us all, Claudia has become the most discussed person in Rome. Verses of unbounded obscenity are scribbled about her over the walls and pavements of all the baths and urinals in Rome.”
Closer to home in Timmins and surrounding communities civic leaders and police have been grappling with graffiti and charges have been laid in some instances.
On October 28, 2014 TimminsToday reported that OPP in Kapuskasing arrested a 23-year-old woman and charged her with five counts of mischief under $5,000, contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada.
A 15-year-old girl was also charged with six counts of mischief under $5,000 in that incident.
In Timmins in November, 2013 Timmins police arrested two young offenders in Timmins who were charged with 13 counts of mischief. The pair spraypainted 13 buildings in Timmins.
While some graffiti can be elaborate, other graffiti, known as tagging, resembles crudely scrawled initials. The use of tagging can be a form of bullying as in some cases it has been used by gang-members to delineate their territory.
Some public places welcome graffiti and there it can be done without concern, such as the Whitney Arena skate park.
However, when it occurs on private property the act is against the criminal code of Canada and participants will be charged if caught.
When the 2013 graffiti charges were laid, Noella Rinaldo, Councillor for Ward 5 and also the executive director of the Downtown Business Improvement Association, joined business owners J.P. Legault, Randy Gattesco and Mary Ellen Pauli for a press conference at Timmins police headquarters.
More recently, one downtown business owner Brianna Humphreys opened the exterior walls of her Radical Garden Restaurant on the Corner of Balsam St. North and Fifth Ave to graffiti artists.
Humphreys, who is an artist, said she wants to change the way we as a community perceive art. So she offered up the walls of her Radical Gardens Restaurant as a canvas for graffiti artists. But even Humphreys has rules that the artists must follow: no profanity and lewd or offensive images were allowed and her patio space and Radical Garden logo were off limit. Other than that the graffiti artists were free to design what they liked and Humphreys even told police allow the graffitists to proceed as they had her permission.
Whether you think graffiti is an eyesore or a work of art the reality in Timmins and other communities and around the world is that graffiti is a fact of life in our society as it was in ancient Rome.
For the most part, graffiti is practiced in the laneways and backs of buildings. In rare cases the spray painting is done to the front of a building.
As civic leaders have expressed in the past, graffiti costs local small business people in time and money to have the designs, some of which may be offensive, removed. As the cost of removing graffiti is often below the level of insurance deductibles, these costs are borne directly by the owners.
One city councillor who has spoke out against property damage caused by graffiti is Michael Doody, who represents Ward 5, which includes downtown Timmins.
Doody has called graffiti practitioners "gutless" for doing it at night so no one can see them.
