A south central township near Guelph, Ont. voted Wednesday to rename Swastika Trail after years of controversy.
Street residents Audrey Hoskins and Randy Guzar applied for the change, noting the name did not comply with Puslinch Township policy, which bars discriminatory or derogatory names.
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Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) director Jaime Kirzner-Roberts told council during a deputation that “the fact that Puslinch has a street named after a Nazi symbol has remained a source of deep hurt for countless residents for too long.”
Council voted almost five years ago to keep the street name, leaving a stain on the township, Kirzner-Roberts said in a statement.
“We commend the local residents who never gave up on their fight to change the street name and are thankful township staff had come to the realization that the street name is inappropriate and a name change is long overdue,” Kirzner-Roberts said. “The swastika is the ultimate symbol of horror and mass murder, a symbol adopted by the Nazis who murdered six million Jews and millions of others during the Holocaust. Not only does the swastika serve as an odious symbol of the atrocities committed by the Nazis against civilians, it also represents the enemy regime that took the lives of tens of thousands of Canadian soldiers.”
A staff report to council recommended the name change, noting Swastika Trail violates the township’s new naming policy and is arguably the most universally recognizable hate symbol in Canada.
“A name or word that may have been generally accepted 100 years ago may no longer be acceptable today,” the staff report says. “Recently, municipalities and public organizations across Canada have been responding to requests from the public to rename streets, public buildings and schools or remove monuments that represent systematic racism and discrimination.”
A news release put out by the Daisy Group, which assisted Guzar with pro bono advocacy, says the vote ends a divisive chapter in the history of the municipality located south of Guelph.
“For more than 20 years, my neighbours and I have asked our elected officials to rename Swastika Trail yet the concerns of myself and others had previously been ignored,” Guzar said in the news release. “We are grateful to this council for listening to the concerns of myself and my neighbours, including a Holocaust survivor, and look forward to moving forward as a community.”
aartuso@postmedia.com
