The organizers of last Friday’s rally against the Garden of Grace stated Tuesday they had nothing to do with vandalizing the site over the weekend.
Sara Bortolon-Vettor and Carly Hunt planned the peaceful protest to make public the growing outrage over a garden dedicated to life lost through abortion and miscarriage. About 100 people turned up for the rally at the foot of Catholic Hill, many calling the project on top of the hill a shaming garden.
The garden is being built at a cost of $91,000 by Guelph and Area Right to Life, a pro-life/anti-abortion group in the city. It is on land offered for the project by the Diocese of Hamilton, which is the overarching authority for Roman Catholic Church property in Guelph and elsewhere in southern Ontario.
"As organizers of the rally on Friday, Carly Hunt and I want to let everyone know we did not vandalize this space,” Bortolon-Vettor said in a statement. “This is unfortunate and upsetting as this is something that could have been dealt with in a more mature manner. Vandalism is not part of our pro-choice message. Please be respectful and peaceful, friends."
Vandals spray painted pro-choice messages on the walkway of the garden sometime overnight Sunday, and littered it with condoms, sanitary napkins and tampons, all made to appear used.
The words “Condom not condemn” were left in large lettering in two areas of the walkway.
A stonemason was back at the site Tuesday morning, preparing to lay more limestone on the concrete base of the walkway. While the litter had been cleaned up, the graffiti had not. It will likely need to be professional scrubbed off, the mason said.
Because of the nature of the vandalism and the wording of the graffiti, proponents of the garden have loudly condemned pro-choice activists for the act on social media.
Guelph Police is investigating the incident, spokesperson Const. Mike Gatto said on Tuesday by email. He said such vandalism involves an charge of mischief. He said police are seeking the assistance of the public in the investigation.
Jakki Jeffs is the founder and organizer of the Garden of Grace. She is a past-president of Guelph and Area Right to Life, and the executive director of Alliance for Life Ontario, and pro-life organization that describes itself as an educational coordinating organization for pro-life groups across Ontario. It is located in the same 26 Norfolk Street office as Right to Life, next to Basilica of Our Lady.
“They can trash it a hundred times and we will clean it a hundred times and more,” Jeffs said in an email response, adding that her morality has been targeted online by activists.
“We will forgive them for what they have done and personally even for the disgusting insinuation regarding my morality,” she added in the email. “The garden is for bereaved parents who have had a child die from miscarriage or induced abortion, and it will be here long after this group finds someone else's rights and freedoms to trample upon.”
The Garden of Grace has been under construction for roughly three weeks, and in planning for three years. It will feature two life-sized bronze sculptures, one a kneeling Jesus holding an infant, the other a mournful angel kneeling over an empty cradle.
Fr. Dennis Noon, pastor of Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate, defended the garden Friday evening, saying it will be a beautiful and peace place for remembrance.
