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April 25 - May 2, 2004 |
Wither Such Hate?
Vaughan Attempts to Recover from Spree of Hate Crimes
By Mark Cirillo
Originally Published: 2004-04-04
When the Ontario legislature convened last week, they began with a highly unusual piece of business. Unusual because all the parties unanimously passed a motion, but more so because of the motion's content. The legislature was reacting to a spree of vandalism that has occurred in Toronto in recent weeks. Counted in dollars, the vandals destroyed thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of dollars worth of property. That may be a lot of money, but to the provincial government it's a pittance, hardly worth mentioning.
What caught the government's attention, and the attention of the general public, was not the quantity of damage but the quality of it. A disturbing spree of racist vandalism occurred across the city, but most occurred in a predominantly Jewish zone of Vaughan, in the vicinity of Bathurst St. and Steeles Avenue. The hateful messages that targeted one of Toronto's oldest communities offended not only its members but the greater population of a city that prides itself in its racial, religious and cultural diversity.
It all began the night of Saturday, March 15th. At some point between the hours of 11:13 p.m. and 7 a.m., vandals descended on Beverley Glen Blvd., spray-painting 11 cars and 13 houses with swastikas and anti-Semitic messages.
Amongst the vandalized homes was one belonging to 81-year-old Maria Leib, who awoke to find a swastika and the message "Jewz suk" spray-painted on her door. Ms. Leib is a holocaust survivor who barely escaped detainment in a Ukrainian Jewish ghetto during World War II. She told the press that for the first time since coming to Canada, she "felt afraid."
Just a few days later, with Toronto's Jewish community still reeling from the Beverley Glen Blvd. attack, vandals struck again. On the morning of March 20th, the community awoke to find swastikas and violent messages defacing two synagogues and a string of signs for the United Jewish Appeal. Vandals also smashed the windows of the Pride of Israel Synagogue and the Joseph and Faye Tanenbaum Residential Centre.
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