With antisemitism surging in Canada, B’nai Brith is calling on the Federal Government to follow the lead of other Western countries and ban Nazi iconography.
“Countries such as Germany, France and Australia have already outlawed the public display of Nazi symbols such as the Nazi Swastika or the S.S. armband,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy. “Federal and or provincial legislation should be enacted or amended to outlaw the public display of Nazi iconography in Canada, with reasonable exceptions for purposes such as historical education or artistic expression.”
B’nai Brith has launched a petition to generate public support for such legislation, which would be carefully tailored to protect civil liberties.
B’nai Brith’s actions are a direct response to an incident in Saint-Bernabe-Sud, a town in southwestern Quebec, where a resident, Yahia Meddah, has refused repeated requests to remove signs and stickers on his property containing the Nazi Swastika. Last July, the Superior Court of Quebec ordered Meddah to take the symbols down, but they remain in place.
This is not the first incident in recent memory involving similar public use of Nazi symbols in Canada. Last August, for instance, B’nai Brith decried the display of a flag containing the Swastika at a home in Kitchener, Ont.
“Freedom of expression in this country cannot become a licence to freely display a symbol synonymous with hate and genocide,” said Henry Topas, Quebec and Atlantic Canada Regional Director for B’nai Brith Canada. “Nazi iconography must not be divorced from its specific historical context. Doing otherwise trivializes the Holocaust and emboldens those who wish to glorify the Third Reich’s crimes against humanity.
“The province of Quebec and Canada should ensure that their citizens cannot be revictimized by the perverse use of these symbols.”