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By Bryan Weismiller

CALGARY — City and military officials are shocked after learning one of Calgary’s newest war memorials was vandalized only days before Remembrance Day.

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Bill Bruce, the city’s chief bylaw officer, said graffiti was sprayed across the riverside wall of Poppy Plaza on Thursday night.

Phil MacAulay, president of the No. 1 Royal Canadian Legion, said he was disappointed to learn of the damage.

“It’s bad,” MacAulay said. “It’s disrespectful. “You just don’t think something like that would happen any time of year, but especially now.

“It’s so close to Remembrance Day, you’d think they’d know,” added MacAulay, who spent five years in the Canadian Navy. “Unfortunately, some lamebrains don’t think of the consequences or anything like that.

“They do what they do, and they have no rhyme or reason for it.”

Poppy Plaza is part of the city’s Memorial Drive: Landscape of Memory project. It was designed to acknowledge Canada’s wartime effort while functioning as a much-needed public space.