How Corey Fleischer found meaning in erasing hate

On an overcast afternoon, Corey Fleischer is kneeling in front of a swastika etched into a downtown Montreal sidewalk.

"I'm dedicating this to the 11 people who were massacred at the synagogue in Pittsburgh."

He then covers up the swastika withcement using a trowel.

"And just like that, yourhate is gone," he says.

Fleischer is recording the moment on his cellphone so he can share it with his 33,000 followers on Instagram.

"This is what makes me feel complete as a person," he says afterwards.

Sightings reported via social media

For nine years, Fleischer has been running Erasing Hate, an initiative that combines graffiti removal and social media to erase hate symbols from public spaces.

He learns about hate graffiti around the city via social media, where people report sightings to him.

Then, in his spare time, he drives out to the site and removes the hate symbols using the tools he already owns thanks to his day job running a graffiti removal company.

Fleischersays the feeling he gets when removing hate symbols "is like drugsIt's an extremely euphoric feeling. It's something that I've never been able to explain."

Watch our story about CoreyFleischer traveling around Montreal removing hate symbols:

Erasing hate

6 years ago

Duration 2:45

Erasing hate

Fleischerremoved his first hate symbol nine years ago. He was on his way toa client's house in the suburbs. While drivingalong MonklandAvenue in Notre-Dame-de-Grce, he noticed aswastika painted on a concrete block.

Fleischer kept on driving but when he got to the job site, he couldn't shake the regret he felt by doing nothing about the griffiti.

He told the owner of the house that his machine had broken down and that he'd return tomorrow to finish the work.

"I went back toMonklandand I erased my first swastika."

Dozens of hate crimes

Hate incidents in Montreal are not uncommon. According to the Montreal police service,so far this year172 hate crimes have been reported 71 of those were related to religion. Most of those incidents, 36 of them, were directed at Jews while 33 of them weretowards Muslims.

Last year's figures were higher. Montreal policehandled 250 reported hate crimes. Of those, 59were directed towardsMuslims and 42 were anti-Semitic.

Fleischer is now working at taking his movement global.

In the coming weeks he plans to release an Erasing Hate app that would let anyone with an iOs or Android smartphone report hate graffiti.

The app would allowusers to send photos and the geolocation of hate graffiti to Fleischer, who would then use his social media presence to find volunteers to remove it.

Already he's used his large social media following to inspire people to remove hate in Paris and Los Angeles.

"We remove hate anywhere in the world, free of charge."