WINNIPEG— A swastika was found last month on a sign on the site of a new Chabad-Lubavitch centre being built in the River Heights neighbourhood of Winnipeg’s south end, where many of the city’s Jews live.
Last May, a swastika and the word “move” were spray painted on 792 Campbell St. in Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood. [Rhonda Spivak photo]
WINNIPEG— A swastika was found last month on a sign on the site of a new
Chabad-Lubavitch centre being built in the River Heights neighbourhood
of Winnipeg’s south end, where many of the city’s Jews live.
Last May, a swastika and the word “move” were spray painted on 792
Campbell St. in Winnipeg’s River Heights neighbourhood. [Rhonda Spivak
photo]
The Sept. 11 discovery was the latest in a series of incidents involving anti-Semitic graffiti in the area since this past spring.
Michael Kowalson, a resident of River Heights, reported the swastika to Winnipeg police. He said that he told them “this was the third or fourth incident of a swastika in River Heights that I’ve heard about this year and that… the way to address this situation is through citizens reporting to police suspicious persons or activity and through increased police patrols in the community.”
Last May, a swastika was found on a bus shelter on a major thoroughfare near the new Chabad-Lubavitch centre.
Another Jewish resident of River Heights also reported finding a swastika with the words “Heil Hitler” scrawled on her neighbour’s garage this past June.
The woman’s non-Jewish neighbours down the street, David and Christine Lind, had 32 swastikas drawn on their garage door the same week.
“In one of the boxes on the garage the words ‘Heil Hitler’ had been written,” David Lind told The CJN. “Not all of the swastikas were drawn properly, but they all looked to be written by the same hand. In another box, the words ‘white power’ were written.”
Lind said that whoever drew the symbols was “tall enough to reach the top part of my garage door, so it couldn’t have been an eight- or nine-year-old. I figure it had to be someone who was at least five feet tall.”
Lind also said the attack was particularly bad, because his house faces Fleet Avenue, “and on Saturdays, there are a lot of Jewish people who walk by, going to and from [Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun] Synagogue [located a few blocks away on Fleet], and because we are on a corner, they could see this from Fleet.”
The latest swastika on the Chabad-Lubavitch property appears to have been drawn in permanent black marker, similar to others found in earlier incidents.
Last May, Rob Vittera, whose son attends the Hebrew bilingual program at Brock Corydon School, came forward on his own initiative to paint over some very large swastikas that were spray-painted on the home of Kay Robertson and Earl Varlow at 792 Campbell St., also in River Heights.
A large swastika with the word “move” was spray-painted on an area of the house that faces the kitchen window of the couple’s Jewish neighbour, Marsha Singer.
Although Robertson and Varlow, who are not Jewish, were aware of the swastikas, they didn’t report them to police until Vittera convinced them to do so.
Alan Yusim, executive director of B’nai Brith Canada’s midwest region, said he’s asked the Winnipeg Police hate crimes unit to investigate whether the recent incidents in River Heights are related and possibly the work of the same culprit or culprits.
Const. Natalie Aiken of the Winnipeg Police Service told The CJN that “these instances have been flagged and sent to our hate crimes co-ordinator. The investigations are ongoing. If there is further information that comes to light suggesting [the instances] are linked, we will pursue this.”
