Hateful graffiti in Winnipeg points to disturbing trends, say Jewish, Muslim community members
Graffiti targeting Jews, Arabs 'an example of why we need to keep fighting': Islamic Association consultant
Members of the Jewish and Muslim communities say they're disturbed and saddened after a series of hate-related graffiti messages against Jews and Arabs were spray-painted on an underpass in Winnipeg's Point Douglas area.
The graffiti, which included a swastika and hateful messages such as "hail Hitler" and "KKKanada," was spotted by CBC reporters on Annabella Street, north of Higgins Avenue, on Tuesday. It's not clear when the graffiti was originally painted.
The City of Winnipeg sent a crew out that same day to clean up the graffiti and confirmed that it has been removed.
Marvin Rotrand, the national director of B'nai Brith Canada's League for Human Rights, said that he is shocked to see such antisemitic messages but not surprised, as such messages are still far too commonly seen in Canada.
"We can't at this point know their motivations," he said of the person or people behind the vandalism, but such graffiti is generally "meant to hurt, and it does."
"Generally, the profile of these people are those who are hateful toward religious minorities [and] immigrants, and are white supremacists."
According to a 2023 Statistics Canada report, police-reported hate crimes targeting Jews rose by 47 per cent between 2020 (331 incidents) and 2021 (487 incidents). Hate crimes targeting Muslims increased by 71 per cent (from 84 in 2020 to 144 in 2021).
'Troubling trends'
Rotrand said the number of hate crimes in Manitoba varies significantly year to year, peaking in some years and dipping in others.
According to B'nai Brith's 2022 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents of Canada, there were 51 antisemitic incidents reported in Manitoba in 2022, compared to 223 in 2021.
The audit also found at least 22 Jewish Manitobans reported harassment last year, with one violently attacked.
Rotrand says Winnipeg's Jewish community was shocked after 70 gravestones at the Shaarey Zedek Jewish cemetery were toppled in June 2022.
He noted "rising troubling trends" related to antisemitism in a number of Canadian provinces.
"Such incidents are unacceptable and cause a feeling of insecurity," he said. "It's not only for Jews to fight antisemitism, but also for the Muslim community to fight Islamophobia."
Aasiyah Khan of the National Council of Canadian Muslims also says such crimes are disturbing.
"Although any display of hatred is concerning, it is especially alarming when such displays are overt and public."
Youcef Soufi, a consultant with the Manitoba Islamic Association, says any form of threat, including graffiti or verbal threats, can escalate to more overt forms of violence.
Hateful messages like the Annabella Street graffiti are directed against groups who have been marginalized by society and suffered different forms of hate, he said.
"We as a society have to fight against … antisemitism, anti-Black racism and anti-Indigenous racism. This is an example of why we need to keep fighting," he said.
WATCH | Disturbing graffiti on Winnipeg underpass:
Soufi noted that after a recent attack on a young Muslim woman working at a Winnipeg Olive Garden restaurant, the Islamic Association prepared a report on the problem of Islamophobia in Manitoba.
"We don't have a particular policy to fight vandalism, but the data collected range from overt and threatening forms of Islamophobia to more subtle and pervasive stereotypes of Muslims," Soufi said.
Ruheen Aziz, a board member of the Manitoba Islamic Association, said it's always disturbing and scary to know that there are people in the province spreading hateful messages publicly.
"A lot of this can be mitigated by putting in more effort in educating people about similarities and differences of such kinds of hateful rhetoric," she said.
According to the city, there has been an increase in recent years in requests for removal of hate-related graffiti. This year, they received 189 requests for removal of hate-related graffiti, compared to 169 last year, 163 in 2021 and 106 in 2020.
The Winnipeg Police Service told CBC its hate crimes co-ordinator has been notified about the Annabella Street graffiti.
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