WHITEHAVEN, ENGLAND – JUNE 2: Duke Street in Whitehaven is cordoned off to the public with police-tape for a scene of a murder caused by gunman Derrick Bird on June 2, 2010 in Whitehaven, England. 12 people have been shot dead and a further 25 people injured after a 52 year old man named as Derrick Bird went on a rampage with a shotgun in Cumbria before killing himself. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images) Police for a local Ontario municipality initially declared the vandalism of a monument to a Nazi SS division a hate crime before later clarifying to the contrary.
The monument to the 14th SS Division, located in the St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery in Oakville was vandalized with graffiti that read, “Nazi war monument.” The Ottawa Citizen reported that the Halton Regional Police were investigating the matter as a “hate-motivated” crime.
The police later released a statement clarifying it initially thought the graffiti was targeting Ukrainians, not Nazis.
“At no time did the Halton Regional Police Service consider that the identifiable group targeted by the graffiti was Nazis,” the statement read. “We regret any hurt caused by misinformation that suggests that the service in any way supports Nazism.”
Halton Police releases clarification: https://t.co/3ZtlVWT4wk pic.twitter.com/KK4l7F4zAJ
— Rachel Browne (@rp_browne) July 17, 2020
Halton Police Chief Steve Tanner tweeted, “There is no support for the Nazi SS within Canada, nor should there ever be anywhere. The Nazi party/SS are by no means a protected group under any hate crime related legislation. The most unfortunate part of all of this is that any such monument would exist in the first place.”
There is no support for the Nazi SS within Canada, nor should there ever be anywhere. The Nazi party/SS are by no means a protected group under any hate crime related legislation.The most unfortunate part of all of this is that any such monument would exist in the first place
— Chief Steve Tanner (@ChiefTanner) July 17, 2020
Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, director of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism at the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement, “We were initially quite shocked to learn that Halton police saw the defacing of a Nazi monument as a hate crime and are very appreciative that they have corrected the direction of their investigation. The bigger question we should be contending with is, why is there a monument to Nazi soldiers in our country at all?”
According to the Ottawa Citizen, the 14th SS Division consisted of Ukrainians who allegedly killed hundreds of Polish civilians in 1944.
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