Burlington mayor denounces Nazi graffiti
Vandalism at city park follows ‘McMaster KKK meeting’ incident
Mayor Rick Goldring is denouncing the Holocaust-related graffiti that appeared in a city park overnight Saturday.
“This hateful messaging has no place in Burlington,” said Goldring in a statement issued Monday. “It is offensive and unacceptable.”
Halton police are investigating after a playground in the city’s northeast was spraypainted with swastikas and the word “Aushwitz,” a misspelled reference to Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp.
Play structures, signs and the sides of buildings at Tansley Woods Park were tagged with the graffiti.
School buses parked in a nearby church lot were also spray-painted with similar markings.
Goldring said this graffiti does not represent Burlington’s spirit of inclusivity, which the community “works so hard to foster.”
City spokesperson Donna Kell added, “We have not seen incidents of this nature at this magnitude.” Kell said staff removed the graffiti within three hours of being made aware of it. The goal was to have it gone within 24 hours, she said.
The hateful graffiti follows on the heels of an incident at McMaster University late last week in which a library study room was reserved under the name “McMaster KKK meeting.”
The university said Friday it is investigating the reservation and on Monday had nothing new to add. Officials know the identification number used to book the room but have not revealed if it was a number belonging to a student, staff or faculty.
The online booking for the study room at Innis Library was made late Wednesday and removed by library staff Thursday morning — but not before others noticed and tweeted about it.
The booking, believed to be “a very inappropriate prank” according to McMaster’s director of communications, Gord Arbeau, is being condemned by antiracism activists and the student union.
The reservation also follows a recent smattering of posters on campus promoting the so-called “alt-right” movement, a U.S.-based offshoot of conservatism that includes elements of racism, white nationalism and populism embraced by president-elect Donald Trump during his campaign.
The campus posters condemned “antiWhite propaganda.”
Burlington’s Tansley Woods Park is just east of Walkers Line and south of Upper Middle Road.
Police were alerted to the incident Sunday morning after a driver of one of the buses filed a complaint.
Halton police ask anyone with information to contact them at 905-825-4747 ext. 2305.
This hateful messaging has no place in Burlington. It is offensive and unacceptable. MAYOR RICK GOLDRING