After Town Votes To Keep ‘Swastika Trail’ Street Name, Residents Go To Court
A swastika Image by Wikimedia Commons
(JTA) — Residents of a town in Canada have launched an application for judicial review of the local council’s decision not to rename a street called Swastika Trail.
In January, the Puslinch Township Council in Ontario voted 4-1 against changing the name of the privately owned road. Two months earlier, the neighborhood association voted to keep the name.
The application alleges that the voting process by the Bayview Cottagers Association was unfair and biased.
“There is no place for a street with the name of a symbol of anti-Semitic hatred in modern Canada, and the irregularities preceding Puslinch Council’s vote on this matter must be addressed,” Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada, said in a statement issued Wednesday.
The street was named in the 1920s, but residents told The Canadian Press that the swastika should not be vilified as a Nazi symbol. They pointed out that it is an ancient religious symbol meaning life and good work in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.
A town in northern Ontario is named Swastika for a local goldmine that used the symbol for good luck.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
