Ice rink in TMR vandalized with swastikas

For many Montrealers trying to find fun activities to do with their families this winter – they might head down to a local rink. But for a member of the Jewish community who came to an ice rink at Danyluk park in the Town of Mount Royal, what they found shocked them.

The ice was defiled by symbols of hatred. Four swastikas were carved into the snow on the ice, left for everyone to see. Members of the community are calling the act unacceptable.

“It is a pretty big park, strategically placed. Not only people who are skating but anybody walking through would be able to see this,” explained Marvin Rotrand, national director of the League of Human Rights, B’nai Brith Canada.

“Under no circumstance can a swastika be seen as anything other than a hate symbol. It represents an odious regime that killed millions of people,” he added.

“It’s a symbol that brings up a lot of negative feelings, a lot of fear,” said Rabbi Moshe Krasnanski, director at Chabad TMR.

“It is still a shock to see this happening in such a diverse city, especially Montreal. To see this is still a big shock… not something you expect to see and not something that we thought we would ever see. We have to denounce it, it’s not acceptable, it’s not a game, it’s not a joke,” added Rabbi Krasnanski.

Many took to Twitter, saying “this isn’t someone drawing something ‘silly’ in the snow. It’s a symbol of hate that represents a genocide.” Another saying, “shocked that happened in Canada.” And another saying “someone knows who did this. By not saying/reporting, they are equally guilty. Praying for a full police investigation.”

Blurred image of Mount Royal ice rink vandalized with swastikas. (Photo Credit: Facebook/ @Bill613)

“I think people were heartened that the local community, the Town of Mount Royal said ‘no we’re not going to allow this.’ They jumped on it and said ‘we are going to deface these swastikas and find out who did it,’ and that’s a very encouraging message,” said Rotrand.

Both the town of Mount Royal and Montreal police’s hate crimes units have launched investigations.

Authorities say it’s still ongoing and provided no further update.

TMR mayor Peter Malouf told CityNews in a statement that “public security and maintenance did not see anyone responsible for drawing the swastikas on the ice rink. To our knowledge, there have been no other incidents. Hopefully, this will have been a regrettable, one-off.”

“We insist that resources be available in different municipalities to combat hate. We insist on better definitions of what is hate and better training of law enforcement and civil servants. Often the people in charge of making sure we’re all safe often do not recognize racism and hate and they don’t have a toolbox of the solutions available,” explained Rotrand.

A statement echoed by Rabbi Krasnanski. “We have to get to the bottom of it so that things like this do not happen, and the people who need to be, are educated or are dealt with properly so these things don’t happen.”