Flyers decrying 'anti-white propaganda' found in Hamilton
Flyers linked to alt-right blog found in Westdale neighbourhood, McMaster University
Flyers lamenting "anti-white propaganda" were found in Hamilton's Westdale neighbourhood Monday morning. Students are also reporting seeing them on campus at McMaster University.
Eva Salinas discovered three flyers taped to poles on King Street West around 9 a.m., just after she dropped her son at school.
Each one read: "Tired of anti white propaganda? You are not alone." The flyers also included a maple leaf and a QR code that people could scan with their smart phones.
It's not so blatant as to be saying 'we're anti-newcomer.' It's trying to speak to a white population that feels like it might be wronged.- Eva Salinas
"I was disgusted. My son goes to school right in front of there," said Salinas, the managing editor for international affairs website OpenCanada.org. "I didn't want to see that in my neighbourhood.
"But I know these kinds of sentiments exist here."
Similar flyers have popped up in other cities across North America, and link to an extreme alt-right blog. The blog is full of racist overtones, and equates racial pride with patriotism.
Scott Hastie, the editor in chief of McMaster University's student newspaper, tweeted pictures of the flyers, saying one was taped to The Silhouette's office door.
The "alt-right" has hit <a href="https://twitter.com/McMasterU">@McMasterU</a> campus. Posters found on walls and <a href="https://twitter.com/theSilhouette">@theSilhouette</a>'s office door. <a href="https://t.co/hRGaCQ3bcD">pic.twitter.com/hRGaCQ3bcD</a>
—@Scott1HastieUniversity spokesperson Wade Hemsworth told CBC News that the university found out about the posters Monday morning.
"Once we were made aware, the posters were immediately removed," he said.
"McMaster is a community that promotes an inclusive and welcoming environment, and that's why they were taken down."
Mayor Fred Eisenberger denounced the message being spread. "It's a worry. Surely people don't have a license to spread hate and the kind of racism and division we've seen rise to the surface. It's not OK to express that and it's not OK to have that kind of view in our modern society."
In the weeks since Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election, several incidents of racism have been reported in Canada. "That's not a coincidence, at all," Salinas said.
Last week in Toronto, posters that read "Tired of political correctness? Wondering why only white countries have to become 'multicultural'?," were found glued to poles in the city.
In Ottawa, a teen was arrested in connection with a spate of racist graffiti that included spray-painting swastikas on the doors of a synagogue.
In Hamilton, one woman reported being subjected to racist treatment while in a checkout line in a local store.
Salinas says that posters like these are subversive, but still racist, nonetheless.
"It's not so blatant as to be saying 'we're anti-newcomer,'" she said. "It's trying to speak to a white population that feels like it might be wronged," she said.
"Every day is a whiteness day … this is the default privileged position in our society."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
