The president of the Vancouver Jewish Federation says Holocaust education is critical amid Nazi symbols at the Ottawa vaccine mandate protest.
After social media feeds were flooded with images of people displaying swastika flags and symbols at the Ottawa protest, many are outraged.
Ezra Shanken, the president of the Vancouver Jewish Federation says the misuse of the Holocaust symbols is an insult to the immense loss of life.
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Kyla Lee, a criminal defense lawyer says although Canada has laws that protect freedom of speech and prohibit hate speech, flying confederate or swastika flags does not violate the criminal code.
“I know that there are laws that are being proposed that try to capture more broad conduct to try and prevent incidents like this because it is harmful to people psychologically and emotionally to see symbols like that,” Lee says.
She says the reason Canada does not have such strict laws prohibiting displaying certain messages is that it has not been a rampant national issue.
“For a long time Nazism and fascism in Canada and alt-right stuff was often a fringe movement that had difficulty organizing, but what we’ve seen especially with this protest, as we move to more of a digital borderless society is that people like this have an easier time finding each other and they have an easier time organizing,” she explains.
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