P.E.I. inukshuk painted white over weekend

'I just hope someone comes forward and explains it before it is taken the wrong way,' says Pride PEI chair

Image | P.E.I. rainbow inukshuk gets a paint job

Caption: Before and after: someone painted over a rainbow-coloured inukshuk in white over the weekend. (Photos by Pat Martel and Donna Allen/CBC)

A large inukshuk beside the Trans-Canada Highway west of Charlottetown that was mysteriously painted in rainbow colours last week has now just as mysteriously been painted over in white — and no one knows by whom, or why.
The four-metre pile of P.E.I. sandstone was built during the construction of a new section of the highway in the Bonshaw Hills in 2013. A heavy equipment operator put it together, apparently on a whim, with surplus stone at the building site.
Last week, the red sandstone was painted with colours of the rainbow.
But over the weekend someone covered the rainbow with white paint.

Image | Top of paint can by inukshuk in Bonshaw

Caption: The top of a can of white paint remained by the inukshuk Sunday morning. (Donna Allen/CBC)

A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said the office does not know about what happened at the site. The department did not paint the inukshuk and doesn't know who did.
"I just hope someone comes forward and explains it before it is taken the wrong way," said Pride PEI chair Tyler Murnaghan.
The rainbow is used as a symbol of pride by the LGBTQ community.
An inukshuk is the figure of a person made out of stones, and the Inuktitut word means "like a human."