Pointe-Saint-Charles residents were shocked to notice their dear community mural in a vandalised condition.

A team of local artists called Collectif au pied du mur organised the mural which is over 80 metres long. The mural is painted along a wall retained by a railroad. The mural was completed just this September. It celebrates the enriched diversity of the community as it shows a wide range of ethnic and cultural groups. It is a piece of art which the local residents are extremely proud of. However, they were shocked recently to find the mural painted over by somethign else, CBC reports.

According to Marco Silvestro, who happens to be one of the members of the group which organised the painting, the painting was defaced. He discovered the vandalism as he was biking leisurely along with his daughter. The black woman's face in the painting was painted white. Mr Silverstro finds it as a clear example of racism and xenophobia. He informed that he had been disgusted by this defamation of art.

The mural took three long months to get completed. Every resident in the community was encouraged to freely express their own ideas about it. Everyone was also welcome to try their painting skills on such a huge canvas of concrete.

Mr Silverstro further said that they were in favour of promoting solidarity, multiculturalism and living together. 160 members from the community worked together to create the mural, and it has always been highly respected and was a souce of pride by the community. He said that there was no previous instance of the mural getting mutilated by such graffiti. The community group was quick to react to the vandalism as they claimed that they would repaint the mural to its original version shortly.

Mr Silverstro has announced that that the community wants everyone to know that they strongly condemn what seems to be an act of racism against the black people in the community.