'It's senseless': Dozens of headstones toppled at Winnipeg cemetery

John Laporte was looking for peace and quiet when he went for one of his usual weekly walks in Brookside Cemetery on Saturday afternoon.

Instead, he found roughly 50 headstones at the cemetery on Notre Dame Avenue in Winnipeg had been pushed off their bases or tipped over. One of them had its faceplate smashed.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around why. It's senseless," said Laporte. The Winnipegger goes for walks in the cemetery once or twice a week.

"There's no reasoning to it, why somebody would do this. I mean, whatever's happening in somebody's life that would cause them to do it, I'm pretty sure none of these people had anything to do with it."

Laporte said most of the vandalized graves were in the older sections of the cemetery and belonged to people of all ages. The cemetery, operated by the City of Winnipeg, is one of the oldest in the city with its first interment in 1878.

After phoning police, Laporte said he posted about his find on Facebook. He's hoping sharing the story on social media will help police locate whoever's responsible.

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"A vandalism in the traditional sense is more or less property and spray painting and stuff like that. This is actual people that have been laid to rest, and this is their markers," Laporte said. He has loved ones buried in the cemetery, although their graves were unaffected.

"It's totally different. To me, it's a little bit beyond vandalism. It's more desecration than vandalism."

'That could've been my son's'

"It's devastating. For everyone here," said Cathy Marshall, who saw Laporte's post on Facebook and was concerned because her son is buried at Brookside.

She said his stone was not affected, but she drove around to survey the areas that were.  She and the people who visit the graves of their loved ones care about the cemetery deeply, she said. 

"There's a lot of people that come here regularly," she said.

"It hurts. It hurts your heart because that could've been my son's. Somebody you know's mother, father, daughter."

She said it will cost affected families a lot of money to repair the damage, and she's thinking of rallying a volunteer group to put the stones back.

Like Laporte, Marshall said the act goes beyond vandalism.

"I think because it affects the vulnerable. These people may not have anybody," she said. 

"But it should be respected. There should be some respect in this world today."

Winnipeg police are investigating but haven't made any arrests so far. Const. Rob Carver said he hopes that changes. 

"Because that's an insidious crime," Carver said. "I mean desecrating grave stones, it's terrible."

A City of Winnipeg spokesperson said monument owners are being urged not to try to repair damaged headstones themselves. 

David Driedger said the city is in the process of cataloguing the damage and getting in touch with headstone owners.

He said the city will work with owners to have monuments fixed but trying to fix one alone could result in serious injury and cause even more damage. 

The city is asking anyone who owns an affected monument to contact [email protected].