B’nai Brith wants change of name for Swastika Trail

Jewish group’s online petition calls on Ontario township to rename road

A major Jewish advocacy group has stepped up efforts to help some residents of an Ontario town convince local politicians to rename a street called Swastika Trail.

B’nai Brith Canada started an online petition Thursday calling on Puslinch Township, about 75 kilometres west of Toronto, to change the street name.

The group plans to present the petition to the township council when it discusses the issue of renaming the private road next month, Aidan Fishman, advocacy director for B’nai Brith Canada, said in an interview Friday.

“We first became aware of this in October when a group of local residents — some of whom actually live on Swastika Trail and are very upset about the name and want it changed — were encountering some local resistance and contacted us for advice,” Fishman said.

Fishman said his organization has been working with the residents behind the scenes since then, but decided to have members of the public outside the area “weigh in on whether this is an appropriate name for a street in Canada in 2017.”

Swastika Trail was named in the 1920s before the rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, local residents said. Those in support of keeping the name have argued the symbol has a long history before the Second World War, but others argue the name is associated with hate and genocide.

Puslinch Township Mayor Dennis Lever was not immediately available for comment and a township official declined a request for an interview Friday.

Fishman said the residents living on Swastika Trail who are embarrassed and offended by the street’s name should not be forced to use it on their driver’s licences or other government documents.

“We also think that maintaining this street name — never mind for the people who live there — really demonstrates a sort of unwelcoming attitude, whether intentionally or unintentionally, towards people from the outside who may want to visit their own property there, towards Holocaust survivors and their descendants, toward Canadian veterans of the Second World War and their descendants.”

Residents of the street advocating for the name change agree. Two couples contacted B’nai Brith Canada for help after other attempts to get action on the issue. Jennifer Horton said residents on the street voted on the issue earlier this month, with a slight majority in favour of keeping the name.

“That statistic is not significant enough to sway the council” into making a decision, Horton said.