Canadian Red Cross staff in Nova Scotia were busy this weekend scrubbing permanent marker off their property after someone left them a message that wasn't meant for them.

Staff arrived at the Burnside location on Saturday morning to find vehicles, signs and two trailers vandalized, said Dan Bedell, a spokesman for the Canadian Red Cross.

"Doesn't let trans women give blood," read one message. "Discriminates against trans women," said another.

But the Canadian Red Cross has not been involved in blood donor services since the 1990s.

The graffiti was written in permanent marker, which took part of the long weekend to clean off. (Canadian Red Cross)

Bedell said the messages were written in permanent marker between 7 p.m. on Friday and 7 a.m. on Saturday, and believes they were meant for the Canadian Blood Services.

He said there is "confusion" about the two organizations.

"Blood services is a program that our counterparts — for example, in the United States and some other countries — are still involved with," he said.

Bedell says the messages were likely in response to recent changes to Canadian Blood Services policy.

'Didn't actually know what the messages meant'

Bedell says a couple of staff members spent part of the long weekend cleaning what they could, but the marks aren't coming off easily.

​"We didn't actually know what the messages meant initially," Bedell said. "We had to look it up to figure out what policy or what incident would have triggered all this."

Bedell says the Canadian Red Cross has contacted Halifax Regional Police about the incident.