City Refuses To Allow Swastika Removal From Park

On August 17th, 2017, Corey Fleischer, of Erasing Hate, was called by a concerned citizen, regarding a swastika prominently displayed in a park. The park is Parc des ancres, in the town of Pointe-des-Cascades, located north of Vaudreuil, Quebec.

When Corey arrived, he found two swastikas to be on a large anchor displayed in the park. He observed that the city had taken care of this anchor, repainting it (beige, black, and white) and the swastikas were engraved into the metal - and painted a prominent black against the white background.

Photo: Corey Fleischer, Facebook

Corey wants the anchor removed altogether, but in the interim, was satisfied to simply obliterate the swastikas. As he began to paint over the first swastika, the mayor of the city showed up and told him to stop.

As Corey said:

 He couldn't understand why I was so upset, and why I was removing the paint that covered the Swastika. He then told me that if I didn't leave the park, he would call the police and charge me with "Destruction of Property."

Corey did not back down, and a discussion ensued when police were called. You can see it in the video below:




Corey had to leave the park without taking care of the hate symbol.

Later in the week, Corey posted this photo of the plaque under what he calls "Swastika Anchor".

Courtesy Corey Fleischer, Facebook

What adds to the disturbing nature of this entire story is that someone in this city felt proud to display a Nazi "souvenir" with a symbol of hate out in the open, a park, where kids play and families gather.

There are many who support Corey and are disgusted by the city not only endorsing but protecting this hate symbol.  But the most shocking results are the comments his Facebook post has received.

There were those who tried to argue that the swastika is a sign of peace, originally. There were others who argued that these particular swastikas were not painted on an angle, and therefore were not symbols of hate. And still others - too many, in my opinion - who tried to debate that the anchor predated World War II and was not intended to offend.

It is impossible to comprehend how anyone can defend this hate speech, and not experience the visceral, gut-punched revulsion that most decent humans do when confronted by it.

It begged the question: is a swastika any less offensive if on an item that was not intended to persecute the Jews?

The answer is very clear: there is never going to be any other meaning assigned to the swastika than the one it became in 1930s and 40s Europe: anti-Semitism, hate, and persecution of the Jewish people.

For those who claim - as has been reported -  that the swastika was painted on a British anchor, I say this: swastikas that are spray painted on a Canadian brick wall are no less hateful than those on Nazi flags and armbands worn by the S.S. Therefore, the anchor and its origins do not soften the meaning either.

The British anchors that bore the swastika before Nazis made it into their flag were not painted in the Hitlerian color scheme. They were monotone. The one in Pointe-des-Cascades was very freshly painted black, on a white circle; that is clearly Nazi-related.

But here's the thing: the historical context, the date, and the meaning of the swastika when that anchor was created are no longer relevant. The symbol has been forever perverted by Nazis who marched under it while they set out to humiliate, isolate, torture, murder, and burn the bodies of six million Jews - and never can the swastika be seen in any other light.

Even the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington D.C. states that "By the time the Nazis gained control of Germany, the connotations of the swastika had forever changed." (emphasis is mine)

We have seen neo-Nazis marching on a city in the USA just this month, carrying swastika flags; we cannot deny that the symbol continues to be anti-Semitic.

For those who derisively sneered that perhaps no Nazi memorabilia, or Holocaust artifacts should ever be seen, I say this: there are places for those items. Yad Vashem. The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The myriad museums around the world where one can go for the express purpose of learning about the Holocaust, its atrocities, and its outcomes, so that education can ensue and the world can continue to remember the horrors of Nazi Germany. Museums are designed by those who know how to teach, properly exhibit, and provide explanations for the items curated within. A park is not a museum.

For the one incredibly obtuse, disrespectful commenter who suggested to me that Auschwitz be bulldozed ("to the ground" because it was made by Germans), I say this: missing the point is a sign of deep ignorance, or cognitive dissonance. Deflection is a sign of defensiveness. If he was defending his hate, it was blatant.

Ignorance will breed more ignorance, and when we say Never Forget, it's a literal mantra. Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.

No one is saying that all remnants of World War II be erased forever. Quite the opposite. There are places for such memorabilia, to educate, to witness, and those places are where visitors expect to be confronted by symbols of hate and horror.

But a park is not a museum - no matter how much its defenders call it thus;  and it is certainly not a place for swastikas - most especially not when they are freshly painted, defended, and protected by the mayor of the city in which they are located.

Fleischer has retained the legal services of a lawyer who will represent him if further action is taken against him (thus far, none has been instigated). I have no information as to how he will proceed from here, but what we know about Corey Fleischer is that he doesn't give up. He is a crusader against Hate of all kinds: against religious groups (ALL religions), races, sexual orientation, gender, nationality. He has made it his Mission to Erase Hate wherever it is displayed, and there's no way this will continue without his pressing the matter.

The fact that the Mayor Gilles Santerre (of Pointe-des-Cascades) couldn't empathize with Corey, or every other Jewish person to whom that symbol represents hate and suffering, is disturbing - to say the least. That he would protect it, even after Corey explained its meaning, is even more of a concern.

There are only two reasons someone would be so laissez-faire about a swastika: ignorance, or anti-Semitism.

Neither is a great quality, especially in a mayor of a municipality.

There should be no further ignorance, after being taught the reason for Corey Fleischer's desire to remove the swastikas. He explained, in the video above, quite clearly, what the symbol represents. The mayor should already know what the Holocaust was.

So, we're left with the other choice: anti-Semitism. Someone painted meticulously over those swastikas, to emphasize them. I find it hard to believe they didn't know what the symbol means. And so, we're faced with the mayor of a small town, his public works employees, and perhaps city councilors who are willfully allowing the definitive symbol of anti-Semitism to glaringly greet anyone who walks in that park.

This incident is a very slippery slope. I believe that if we do not succeed in getting the mayor to remove this hateful item from the public's view, we are going to see many more of these excuses made for other hate symbols that will pop up - not just in Montreal, not just in Canada, but perhaps worldwide.

Meanwhile, as of Monday, August 21, 2017, the following press release appeared on the city's website:

From Pointe-des-Cascades website

The mayor has decided to install new plates, explaining the history of the symbols and the artifact.

Not good enough. See, it doesn't matter what the swastika used to mean. It has forever been changed, and will never be seen as anything other than a symbol of Nazism and anti-Semitism. No amount of explanation will change that. Any Jewish person confronted by it will never be placated by a weak explanation of what it used to mean.

It means one thing, now and forevermore.

I sincerely hope the mayor of Pointe-des-Cascades - M. Gilles Santerre - will reconsider.

Perhaps he can meet with educators on the issue; perhaps a town hall in which he learns, and hears from survivors, families, researchers, those who work on behalf of combatting anti-Semitism. I would be more than happy to speak with him, as I know Corey Fleischer and others would as well.

But this cannot remain as is. No press release, no explanation, no historical context will ever take away the fact that the symbol was twisted into one of hate and cannot be unseen as such.

Education is key. It is not present in Pointe-des-Cascades.

My Facebook Acquaintances Frighten Me

There are some of you who will read this who actually frighten me.

Not many things frighten me. Bugs do. Spiders. Bees terrify me. Thunderstorms are a fear I've never conquered.

But you frighten me most of all.

Because your anti-Stephen Harper hatred has the ability to throw this country I love into chaos and turmoil.

For you, voting is about exercising your right to hate, not your right to change things.

How do I know that? You've basically said it.

"Vote anyone but Harper this election" - how ignorant a comment that is! There are many, many candidates in this election. You may not live in Quebec, but if you did, would voting Bloc Québecois suit your needs as long as it brought down the Conservatives? Would breaking up the country be fine as long as Stephen Harper were voted out?

See why that's frightening?

What about the Communist Party? Is that okay to vote, because it's "anyone but Harper"? Would living under State-mandated law be fine because it's not Conservative?

Would you be happy with families relegated to only one child because the rule of their dictator states that?

Or being thrown in prison for just wearing the wrong color? Or being interrogated for no reason whatsoever?

(I know, some of you will throw Law C-51 at me, with the accusations that the law allows that kind of thing - my suggestion to you is GET INFORMED)

There are many movements this election calling for the cutesy "ABC" - Anyone But Conservative.

But very few of them know why. Or what the "A" will mean.

Change for its own sake, with absolutely no concrete knowledge of what the change may be or how it may affect this country, is all people keep pushing. With no understanding of the underlying, massive consequences of change.

And that danger, that ignorance, that HATRED without a concrete reason...

That's why you frighten me.

There are many of you who spew the rhetoric. And I've challenged many on Facebook to come out and debate it with me. You want to talk about "how Harper has screwed up Canada"? Then bring a gun to a gun fight, not a rubber spatula.

Spewing talking points, vague nonsense and pure hatred is exactly what negative people do.

But I find VERY few of you who stand FOR something.

And that's not only frightening, that is a tragic state of affairs.

You aren't standing up for the leader you believe in - you're standing against a Leader you don't like personally.

Shallow much?

I'm reminded of a great Statesman, Alexander Hamilton:

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

And those of you to whom I'm referring are not standing for anything; you are falling for everything.


Justin Trudeau is not ready. And while that's been said, his gaffes have proven that over and over. Add to that the fact that he supports the disastrous Iran deal struck by the USA, as a Jew I am flabbergasted and repulsed. As world citizens, we should ALL be outraged by the implications.

His latest "promise" is to "tell Putin off to his face" - not only is that utterly laughable, he ridiculed Stephen Harper for doing the same thing. Only when Harper did it (telling Putin he would shake hands but that the latter has to get out of Ukraine), he did it the way gentlemen with principles do.

Running the country at a deficit for 3 years - promising to do so - as well as scoffing at the tax cuts Stephen Harper put in place for families - shows that Trudeau (living his silver-spooned lavish life) doesn't have Canada's best interests at heart.

NDP's Tom Mulcair is as socialist as they come; the NDP has always been a socialist party, but Mulcair has ratcheted that up with promises to rescind the tax cuts, raise taxes exorbitantly high, and spend, spend, spend. In order to spend, he has to have the money and the only way to do that is to tax Canadians till it hurts.

He also refuses to name Islamic extremism - especially in the face of last year's attacks on Canada by two radicalized terrorists.

Another blind, ill-equipped big spender of our money.

 

But no one has come up with good reasons to support these candidates. I, on the other hand, have spent the past year offering proof of Stephen Harper's track record when it comes to the interests of Canadians.  And will gladly offer it again.

I find many of his detractors don't have families - so the family income splitting, child tax benefits, family leave benefits don't resonate with them.

Some of his haters don't work at regular jobs, so they not only don't care about the paycheck taxes Trudeau is promising, they WANT the social programs to keep them afloat. Free stuff!

I just find it discouraging that those who are denouncing Harper are promoting no one but this vague "change" and "Anyone Else" they seem to feel is the answer. I find it discouraging that people whose priorities year round are food pictures, animal photos, celebrities and travelogues suddenly find a political voice - and it is used to say nothing positive, only negative. Nothing pro. Just anti.

Those of you who stand for nothing are falling for anything.

And it makes me sad to see how gullible Canadians are. We've seen the destruction of America across the border due to the promises of Empty Suit Obama. I pray we don't end up with the same kind of turmoil here due to low-informed haters voting in the wrong party come next Monday.