Dark blue spray-painted letters were splashed across the historic cenotaph at Old City Hall overnight in an act of vandalism mere hours after it was the site of downtown Toronto’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

At the memorial, the words “ye broke faith” could be seen written in capital letters across the bottom of the monument, behind the wreaths that had been placed at the base for Monday’s service. The words “with us” could be seen on the backside of the monument.

Toronto police received reports of the graffiti at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Const. Alex Li said, adding the graffiti is disrespectful to both veterans and current members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Police are asking for the public’s help to find the person responsible.

The vandalism was removed from the memorial in the afternoon after City spokesperson Bob Langmaid said the city arranged to have cleaners remove the graffiti.

“It is just disgraceful and unacceptable that anyone would deface a public monument like this,” Mayor John Tory told reporters. “It would be disgraceful any day of the year but I think the day after Remembrance Day, when people had gone there yesterday and made such a sincere gesture of remembrance and salute for our men and women who served us, is beyond comprehension.”

Premier Doug Ford tweeted it was “disgusting” to see the monument vandalized.

“Disgusting to see a monument to our heroic veterans disrespected by this shameful act of vandalism,” Ford wrote. “I trust our police to find whoever is responsible and bring them to justice.”

Several commuters and passersby stopped to stare at the defaced war memorial Tuesday morning.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Lexi Trimper. “It’s so sad to see that people … don’t have an ability to show respect for soldiers.”

“This is not right at all,” said William Mastin, whose eyes teared up as he stood on the sidewalk.

“Why would you do this? What is this going to bring to someone?” said Mastin, whose grandfather was a war veteran. “These are people that fought for us for years and years on the battlefield. To come home to have somebody spray paint the monument?”

“I’m really disturbed and upset to see this graffiti,” said Maxime Stock. “I think there’s a lot of discord and division right now but I think if we can all be more civil with each other, we’ll be able to listen better.”

The words appeared to reference a line from John McCrae’s 1915 poem “In Flanders Fields,” written during the First World War. The poem’s last lines read:

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

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In Flanders fields.

Carole Ewers, a tourist visiting from England whose great great uncle died fighting in the First World War, stopped to stare at the monument in shock.

“People are just not respectful of what happened in the past,” he said. “Sorry, but if I saw the person who did it, I wouldn’t be very happy with them.”

Meredith Hall, whose father was conscripted to fight in the Second World War and returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder, had a different take on the graffiti, calling it an “interesting comment” on society’s “disillusionment” with how war wastes lives.

Hall said the war “left an indelible impression” on her father. That impact is “in a way, passed down to the next generations, whether we like it or not,” she said.

With files from David Venn and David Rider

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