Groups blast Ottawa for letting alleged Holocaust denier speak in Canada
Canadian Jewish groups are asking why the federal government allowed a British woman accused of Holocaust denial into the country to speak at a neo-Nazi event.
The racist group Blood & Honour said on its website that Alison Chabloz would be the “special guest” at a $10-per-person event it was hosting in Calgary on Thursday night.
Blood & Honour is named after a Hitler Youth slogan, publishes a magazine “promoting neo-Nazism” and has chapters in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, according to the RCMP.
“B’nai Brith is disappointed that Canadian authorities have allowed notorious British Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz to enter this country, especially when the express purpose of her visit is to propagate her anti-Semitic views.”
B’nai Brith Canada said it had notified Calgary Police. The incident comes amid concerns over rising hate crimes, including Holocaust denial posters at the University of Calgary.
Chabloz allegedly posted a mocking song about the Holocaust on YouTube last year, prompting the charity Campaign Against AntiSemitism to take action in the U.K. courts.
She has denied the allegations.
According to a post on the Facebook page of white nationalist Paul Fromm she is on an eight-city tour of Canada that began last Friday in London, Ont.
“This news is particularly unnerving during a week when swastikas were found at York University (in Toronto), and Chabloz is scheduled to speak in Calgary tonight — just days after Calgary‘s Jewish Community Center was evacuated due to bomb threats,” said Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.
The Canada Border Services Agency said it would not speak about specific cases but that it took its “border and national security responsibilities very seriously.”
Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman, who first raised concerns about her visit, said Chabloz should be removed from Canada if she was not forthright with immigration authorities.
“By referring to Auschwitz as a ‘theme park’ and the gas chambers as a ‘hoax,’ British Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz has earned her place at the very margins of society,” said Martin Sampson, communications director of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
“Her ignorance would be laughable but for the pain her lies cause our survivor community and their descendants,” he said. “Her views are repugnant and I am surprised she gained entry into Canada.”