(JTA) — B’nai Brith Canada continued its efforts to rename a street called Swastika Trail, saying a local council’s decision to keep the name was based on an “unfair and biased voting process conducted by residents on the street itself.”
In January, the Puslinch Township Council in Ontario voted 4-1 against changing the name of the privately owned road. Two months earlier, the neighborhood association voted to keep the name, with some residents saying the name referred to an ancient religious symbol, not the Nazi insignia. The street was named in the 1920s.
Local residents have launched an application for judicial review of the council vote on behalf of others living there. The application alleges that the voting process by the Bayview Cottagers Association was “rife with bias.”
“There is no place for a street with the name of a symbol of anti-Semitic hatred in modern Canada, and the irregularities preceding Puslinch Council’s vote on this matter must be addressed,” Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada, said in a statement issued Wednesday.
A town in northern Ontario is named Swastika for a local goldmine that used the symbol for good luck.
