'Disrespectful and destructive' vandalism on Canadian National Historic Site
CTV
Vandals have once again defaced a historic Indigenous site of pictographs in Ontario's Bon Echo Provincial Park.
One of Canada's historic landmarks was vandalized over the Labour Day weekend by people carving their names into it.
It happened on the evening of Sept. 2 in Ontario's Bon Echo Provincial Park, located about 200 kilometres west of Ottawa.
Ontario Parks was notified that the Mazinaw Rock had additional carvings in the face of the cliff. It is believed a stone was used by individuals to mark names near ancient Indigenous pictographs.
A spokesperson from Ontario Parks called the act "disrespectful" and "destructive" saying the incident is now under investigation.
"Mazinaw Rock is a sacred place for Indigenous people. And for millennia, people have been drawn to the rugged beauty of the cliffs," Ontario Parks told CTVNews.ca in an email. "There are more than 260 Indigenous pictographs at Mazinaw Rock and this site is very important for knowledge, ceremony and spiritualism and cultural identity."
Parks Canada designated Mazinaw Rock a historic site in 1982.
Mazinaw is Algonquin for the word "picture" or "writing." The landmark is the largest rock art site in the southern Canadian Shield and the only major pictograph site in southern Ontario, Parks Canada's website reads.