And, as I explained earlier, it could even encourage graffiti artists to paint more. MD: Would something like this actually deter people from doing graffiti? If the graffiti that’s erased has been there for over a year, for example, and that spot suddenly becomes available, it’s certain that someone’s going to go repaint that spot in the hopes that their graffiti will also last for such a long time. They’ll go clean all the places that we’ve already tagged, so that graffiti artists will pass by and reclaim that newly-freed spot. GA: For a graffiti artist, the effects of a crack-down like this will only serve to open up new spots to paint again. MD: What would the effects of such a crack-down be? Charles, the main thing is that the budget is going into buffing graffiti and they don’t do that as much in those areas, so they won’t benefit from a crack-down. But if you look at areas like Verdun and Pointe St. The budget for the crack-down is all going to go to areas like Ville Marie or the Old Port – areas where property owners are capable of buffing graffiti. For our part, we haven’t experienced any extra pressures, even though the city has ordered and carried out several events encouraging graffiti such as “Under Pressure” and “Can You Rock?” I believe they’re only using this technique to reassure people and in reality the areas that are really affected by graffiti aren’t the ones that are getting cleaned up. The media and the city often say that they’re going to do a clean-up, but in reality, those clean-ups only constitute buffing walls. Graffiti Artist: I haven’t had the impression that there’s really been a crack-down in Montreal recently. The McGill Daily: What have your experiences been lately? Have you noticed any kind of crack-down? On September 9th, an artist who wished to remain anonymous shared his thoughts on the topic with The Daily. The most recent tactic employed by some boroughs has been to impose heavier fines on both artists and property owners who do not remove graffiti within a certain amount of time. From setting up legal graffiti walls to imposing stricter penalties for artists, nothing seems to have quite done the trick. Said to have one of the richest graffiti communities in Canada, if not North America, Montreal has tried a number of different approaches to handling this touchy issue. Graffiti: is it an art or a crime? This is a question which has, once more, sparked debate as Montreal’s boroughs renew their efforts to crack down on the medium.
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