Organizers of a morning protest against Winnipeg’s operating budget are embarrassed a man showed up at city hall with a sign depicting Mayor Sam Katz as a fascist dictator.
The emcee of a protest called Winnipeg Is Not For Sale disassociated her group from the creator of the sign, which features the mayor wearing a German army cap.
“He wasn’t anybody we knew. We are appalled, but we can’t take responsibility for something we did not do,” said Cheryl-Anne Carr, whose group’s intended message was to dissuade council from privatizing city services.
“This is a very disappointing thing to do when we’re trying to talk about the budget.”
Mayor Sam Katz said he is disgusted by the sign and is disappointed protest organizers did not remove its bearer immediately.
“If I had been there at the time, I would not be on the floor of council, because I would have taken action,” said the mayor, adding he believes the sign-bearer is known to members of Winnipeg’s labour movement.
A person claiming to know the sign’s creator said he did not intend to offend anyone with the sign, which is supposed to compare the mayor to a general and not Adolf Hitler.
“Perhaps ignorantly, (it) portrayed a message that was unclear and too easily found distasteful,” the person claimed in an anonymous e-mail.
Katz did not buy the explanation.
“I think we all know who it was supposed to be and who it was,” said the mayor, whose parents are Holocaust survivors. “This wasn’t about me. This was about the millions of people who died in that terrible time in our history.”
City council is debating the 2008 operating budget today.
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