For Immediate Release
Toronto… (July 17, 2001) The League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada was appalled to learn of a cross burning on the front lawn of the home of a Black family in Moncton, New Brunswick, on the weekend.
“This is one of the most heinous and overtly racist crimes possible - an act that is inextricably linked to white supremacy and intimidation,” decried Professor Stephen Scheinberg, National Chair of the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada. “It is crucial for the people of Moncton to rise up with a strong public voice to condemn not only the act but the attitudes behind it. This can be seen as an opportunity to insist on stronger anti-racism training and multicultural programming in the schools and the community at large,” he added.
“This act may have been perpetrated by teenagers as the police are assuming, but they are right to be treating it as a hate crime and not just as a teenage prank. This shows careful planning and an intent to target visible minorities in a deliberately hateful and hurtful way,” explained Dr. Karen Mock, National Director of the League, who served as an expert witness on hate groups in a recent Maritimes case. “The perpetrators of this crime have been exposed to hate somewhere, whether through some of the thousands of hate sites on the Internet or through recruitment drives by organized hate groups, and they have taken the ideology to heart.”
Hate group activity has been reported in the Maritimes over the past few years including in New Brunswick where a skinhead cell was exposed in 1996 with a subsequent crackdown by police. The League’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents reported recent recruitment efforts for white supremacy groups such as the Heritage Front in P.E.I. and the Aryan Nations in Nova Scotia, where a white supremacist known as "Baby Hitler" was recently released from jail after serving her sentence for threatening and assaulting a Black Pastor in Halifax.
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B’nai Brith has been active since 1875 as the country’s senior advocacy and volunteer agency.
For further details or comment contact:
Dr. Karen Mock, Director, League for Human Rights
(416) 633-6224 ext. 111 (office), (416) 802-1105 (cell)
Amelia Golden, Community Relations Coordinator
(416) 633-6224, ext. 130 (office). (416) 802-2163 (cell)
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