After the appearance of anti-Semitic posters on bulletin board at the University of Victoria, the B.C. politician responsible for multiculturalism will address the legislature next week on Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom.
Speaking about the posters to reporters at the University of Victoria on Friday, Ravi Kahlon, parliamentary secretary for sport and multiculturalism, said he plans on making the statement Thursday in the legislature.
Thursday is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, in 1938. Nazis went on a co-ordinated rampage in Germany, burning 250 synagogues, smashing 8,000 Jewish-owned businesses and arresting 30,000 Jewish men to be sent to concentration camps.
Also on Thursday, the Congregation Emannu-El synagogue will hold a ceremony to mark the anniversary. In the past this event has drawn members of all faiths.
Kahlon’s move to mark the event comes in the wake of the posters and Internet messages with links to extremist, websites. The posters and messages included triple parentheses — ((( ))) — recognized as an online signal to anti-Semites. The marks are often placed around names of Jewish people who subsequently find themselves targeted with abuse or threats.
The poster echoed a chant shouted in August by torch-bearing neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia: “Jews will not replace us.”
“(((THOSE))) WHO HATE US WILL NOT REPLACE US,” said the poster. “Defend Canadian heritage.”
The poster first appeared on bulletin boards on campus last month. It was later publicized more widely on Facebook by an anti-racist group.
Third-year law student Renata Colwell heard about the poster and sees no place for its message in the community or at the UVic campus.
Colwell said she fully respects freedom of speech, but that freedom is not a licence to hurt or threaten.
“We have to be careful,” she said. “Freedom of speech stops at the point it becomes hate speech.”
Kahlon was at UVic with B.C. Attorney General David Eby to talk with law students about the NDP’s plans to rejuvenate the B.C. Human Rights Commission, disbanded in 2002.
Eby said he and Kahlon are consulting with various groups and people in B.C. on their way to creating a new commission.
The hope is for the commission to take on an education role to combat racism and prejudice like the kind behind the poster, Eby said.
“British Columbia cannot afford to be complacent,” he said. “When we hear about this kind of incident that tries to foment the kind of divisions we see in other countries, then we need to address that.”
UVic officials, including those from the equity and human rights office, are investigating the poster. Anyone who has information is asked to contact that office or campus security services.
The Victoria Society for Humanistic Judaism will address the poster and other issues on Sunday at an event on religious and cultural intolerance. Besides Jewish thinkers, it will include scholars and leaders from other faiths including Islam and Christianity and a survivor from the Second World War Holocaust
The panel discussion is at 3 p.m. at the Jewish Community Centre of Victoria, 3636 Shelbourne St.
