Ontario township to keep Swastika Trail

It’s been year of name changes and statue removals, but in the small Ontario township of Puslinch, residents have voted not to rename one of the most controversial streets in Canada.

On Wednesday night, despite opposition from local organizers and the Jewish group B’nai Brith Canada, Puslinch town councillors voted 4-1 not to change the name of Swastika Trail. The small lakeside road, located just off Highway 401 near Cambridge, was named just before the rise of Nazi Germany, at a time when the swastika was still known as a symbol of good luck.

In September, after some locals raised concerns, Puslinch councillors began a push to change the name and even offered $ 500 to the Bayview Cottagers’ Association, which controls the privately owned road, to do so. But in the end they bowed to the association’s wishes after its members voted 25 to 20 in a November secret ballot to stick with Swastika Trail.

The name change was championed by two Swast i ka Trail couples, Jennifer and Jim Horton and Audrey and Randy Guzar. They argued Swastika Trail raised uncomfortable questions from house guests, online retailers and anyone reading their driver’s licences.

“I should not have to explain or defend my address when I show my government-issued identification,” Jennifer Horton wrote in a submission to town council.

Residents have disputed the name purely for logistical reasons, as well: confusingly, Swastika Trail is the name of one component of a continuous road with sections that go by three different names. The other two sections are Travelled Road and Cedar Trail.

Others, however, accused the campaigners of bringi ng misinformation and fear to the neighbourhood.

The road’s name wasn’t l i nked to Nazi Germany “until a few residents started a smear campaign in the news and social media actively trying to associate my street with the Nazi party and all its negative connotations,” resident Natalia Busch wrote in a December editorial.

Council also heard from a delegation of residents opposed to a change, the general t heme of t heir argument being their street was named after the Sanskrit symbol, and that they shouldn’t have to rename it just because it had been coopted by Hitler.