March 22


CANADA:

Hate crimes sharpen pain of Holocaust memorial


A vigil to mark the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary was
marked with outrage and sadness today as the local Jewish community
reacted to a new spate of anti-Semitic vandalism.

About 500 people, many wearing black and clutching tissues, turned out to
a community centre for a tearful candle-lighting ceremony to honour more
than 500,000 Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis following the
invasion of Hungary on March 19, 1944.

Survivor Sally Wasserman, 69, said the service was especially significant
given recent hate crimes targeting Toronto Jews.

"It's very important for us survivors not to forget. But, most
importantly, I think it's for the general public to become more aware,"
Wasserman said.

Irving Roth, 74, who also survived the Hungarian Holocaust, urged
authorities to act quickly and aggressively to put a stop to the recent
hatred.

"Anti-Semitism to me is like cancer. Once you have it, you have to be
vigilant," he said.

The latest anti-Semitic vandalism was discovered Sunday morning at a
cemetery not far from the community centre where the vigil was held.
Twenty-two tombstones were toppled.

"I can't tell you the kind of emotional impact this has to those families
that have to come and see this terrible situation," Bernie Farber of the
Canadian Jewish Congress told a news conference at the cemetery.

The desecrated graves followed another incident sometime Friday night.
Swastikas and slogans advocating death for Jewish people were painted on
the walls of a synagogue, a Jewish day school, on a row of United Jewish
Appeal signs and on a sign in front of another synagogue. Seven
stained-glass windows were shattered at a third synagogue.

Earlier last week, 13 residences in the mostly Jewish neighbourhood of
Thornhill, just north of Toronto, were defaced with swastikas and hate
messages scrawled in spray paint.

"It's a cowardly act of attempted intimidation. It won't work. We are not
intimidated, we are outraged," said Farber.

At the news conference Sunday, police Chief Julian Fantino and Ontario
Attorney General Michael Bryant joined Farber in condemning the hate
crimes.

The premier also spoke out against the attacks.

"Cowardly acts such as these are despicable to Ontario. It is everyone's
duty to speak out and take action when racism and hate crimes raise their
ugly heads," Dalton McGuinty said in a news release.

Police have asked for the public's help in solving spate of hate but so
far no suspects have been found.

Fantino said he believes the incidents are connected and that police in
suburban York Region and Toronto will work together to make an arrest.

The chief also dismissed a suggestion that the damage was simply the
mischief of young vandals.

"There's no such thing as `just kids.' This is a very dastardly, heinous
crime. A very serious crime. It isn't just mischief," he said.

The incidents followed the release of a report from B'nai Brith Canada
which showed an increase in hate crimes against Jews across Canada.

National figures suggest a 27 per cent jump in the number of incidents
against Canadian Jews in 2003.

There were 584 anti-Semitic incidents, up from 459 the previous year, the
report found. Most of the incidents were in Ontario and Quebec, where most
Canadian Jews live.

Sunday also marked the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination.

(source: Canadian Press)