Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Canada College Football Field Defaced With Swastika in Snow

A large swastika was found drawn into the snow on the football field Friday at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada.

“This really brought me back to reality that this is something that does exist and I do have to be concerned about it,” Laura Medicoff, head of the school’s Jewish Students Association, told CBC News.

By Saturday the swastika was re-etched into the word “hope.” But students and faculty took to social media to discuss the hate crime.

One Jewish student, Caroline Kovesi, tweeted the need for an institutionalized change: “After the investigation, I want to see real change & absolute commitment to zero tolerance/real consequences to hate.”

Kovesi, a fifth-year sociology and philosophy student, told CBC News that she would refrain from telling her grandparents, all of whmo are Holocaust survivors, about the incident.

“It’s just such a disgrace to all of my family members who were murdered in the Holocaust,” she said.

The school said the vandalism did not reflect the culture at the university.

“In response to last evening’s expression of hate on Alumni Field, we stand with our community with a message of hope,” it said.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.