Brother Rene Lahaie, suspended seventh-grade teacher in a Catholic elementary school here, who had been formally “removed” from his post for displaying a photograph of Hitler and a swastika in his classroom, “explained” the incident to the Canadian Jewish community today, and asked to be “forgiven for having tolerated the inconsiderate use of symbols and dramatizations which are so charged with painful memories.”
The teacher’s letter, saying that he and his superiors had been the “victims of one sided and subjective and prejudiced information,” had been sent to the Canadian Jewish Congress. Joining the teacher in the letter were his former principal, who has been suspended indefinitely, and the director of the school commission in charge of his school, who has been as signed to other duties.
The CJC replied to the signers of the letter that it is acquainting the Jewish community leadership with “the friendly spirit” of their letter. Congress also asserted it is confident that an independent board set up by the Montreal, Catholic School Commission to prove the incident “will take such action as it deems required under the circumstances.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
