Two students have been charged with hate crimes in connection with the display of a swastika at Sir Robert Borden High School in Ottawa, Ontario in December.
Ottawa police said in a statement that the students, who under Canada’s young offenders act are too young to be named, were charged with public incitement of hatred, mischief, and criminal harassment.
The incident occurred on December 1 of last year. It was described as a “blatant act of antisemitism, which is absolutely unacceptable” by the school’s principal Matthew Gagnier.
According to Gagnier’s letter, students who had stayed after school were asked to go into a room where they discovered the swastika. When they noticed it, another student made a Nazi salute.
“Every student deserves the right to feel safe at school, regardless of religion/creed, race, background, ability, gender or sexual orientation,” Gagnier wrote.
But, according to media reports at the time, parents criticized the letter for being sent to them after some time had passed, at which point they had already heard about the incident from their children and other parents.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) and the Ottawa police launched investigations into the incident. Police said that the incident was reported to them on December 5. The investigation was run by the hate crime and bias unit.
Jewish Federation of Ottawa CEO Andrea Freedman praised the Ottawa Police for making the arrests.
“We hope that this will send a wake-up call to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board that they have to begin to take antisemitism much more seriously,” she told the Ottawa Citizen. “The charges the police have laid will hopefully send a signal to all students and the board that hate is a serious offence and it will not be tolerated.”
Freedman added that the Jewish Federation of Ottawa has spoken the OCDSB on multiple occasions about doing more to fight antisemitism in its schools. The Federation went as far as hiring an antisemitism specialist who now spends most of their time on antisemitism in OCDSB schools.
The Federation is meeting with senior board staff on Wednesday. Freedman said that she hopes the OCDSB will agree to a plan involving hiring a Jewish equity coach.
“We have had so many false starts, but we are cautiously optimistic. We hope this is an opportunity to put words into action,” she said.