By Robert Frank
www.thesuburban.com
Security video caught a lone vandal on camera, Feb. 25, as he plastered the front of the office plaza which houses the riding office of Laval des Rapides’ representative in the Quebec legislature, Léo Bureau-Blouin.
The date coincided with the start of the Parti Québecois government’s summit on higher education.
“The single suspect arrived at 400 St. Martin between 4-5 a.m. and sprayed the front and the side of the building with red paint,” recounted Laval police Sgt. Frédéric Jean. “He carried a plastic bag which seemed to hold a paint sprayer system that looked like a fire extinguisher.”
Workers notified police of the crime when they arrived for work around 8:30 that morning.
The Quebec education ministry’s offices at 600 Fullum were similarly targeted the same morning. In addition, a graffitist sprayed the offices of Jean-François Lisée, the Péquiste’s fluently bilingual minister responsible for Montreal. The graffito read: “Enlisée dans l’austérité”, which means ‘Mired in stinginess’.
Doors to the Belœil offices of Pierre Duchesne, Quebec’s minister of higher education, were likewise daubed in red, forming a two-metre red square that has become the emblem of Quebec student protests and was, before the September 2012 election, worn by Premier Pauline Marois while she was leader of the opposition in Quebec City.
Sgt. Jean said that Laval police are also comparing evidence with their Montreal police counterparts, to determine whether the suspect who defaced Léo Bureau-Blouin’s office is the same person who used a large, pressurized spray device to vandalize former Quebec education minister Michelle Courchesne’s office in April 2012.
The building that houses Bureau-Blouin’s offices were also the target of a similar attack in April, when they were occupied by Alain Paquet, who represented the riding under the Quebec Liberal government of Jean Charest.
Police have not yet identified the perpetrator.
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