Graffiti spray-painted on a monument to Nazi soldiers in a small Canadian city is being investigated by police as a hate crime – a move that has prompted disbelief among human rights advocates.
Around 21 June, the words “Nazi war monument” were spray-painted on to a cenotaph commemorating soldiers in the 14th SS Division in an Ontario cemetery, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
The cenotaph is located in Oakville’s St Volodymyr Ukrainian cemetery, roughly 40km (25 miles) from Toronto.
Regional police have said they were treating the graffiti as a “hate-motivated” incident – but declined to release the wording of the message.
The 14th division was made up of Ukrainian nationalists who joined the Nazis during the second world war. Members of the division are believed to have murdered Polish women and children, as well as Jewish people.
Because of their role in Ukrainian nationalism, however, the soldiers have been commemorated by at least two diaspora communities in Canada.
It is against the law in Canada to make a public statement which “incites hatred against any identifiable group”. According to police, the “incident occurred to a monument and the graffiti appeared to target an identifiable group”, Constable Steve Elms told the Ottawa Citizen.
But a hate-crime investigation into Nazi sympathizers has confounded at least one prominent human rights expert.
“I am frankly dumbfounded!” tweeted Bernie Farber, chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, who added that he would gladly offer a workshop to officers to educate them on the nature of hate crimes – and called for a retraction by police.
“At no time did the Halton regional police service consider that the identifiable group targeted by the graffiti was Nazis,” the police said, instead suggesting it was the Ukrainian community that was targeted. “We regret any hurt caused by misinformation that suggests that the service in any way supports Nazism.”
The investigation comes as countries around the world grapple with difficult questions over monuments to people or groups with controversial or racist legacies. Two years ago, the city of Halifax removed a statue of Edward Cornwallis, a British general who offered a bounty for the scalps of the region’s indigenous Mi’kmaq people.
And in Victoria, the city council voted to remove a statue of John A MacDonald, the first prime minister of Canada and architect of the country’s notorious residential school system.
There are at least two other statues in Canada commemorating Ukrainians who fought alongside German forces. In Edmonton, a statue – partially funded by taxpayers – of Roman Shukhevych, a Nazi collaborator, has received scrutiny after the Russian embassy in Ottawa tweeted about “Nazi monuments” in Canada. There is also a second statue dedicated to the 14th SS Division in an Edmonton cemetery.