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‘Anti-Semitic, a hate crime’

City police seeking public’s help in finding who put up posters

By: Geoff Kirbyson

Posted: 09/16/2012 9:18 AM

‘I am extremely saddened and disheartened that an individual, or group of individuals, is posting such material. I have faith that the people of Winnipeg will not support such malice’ — Statement released by Mayor Sam Katz (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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‘I’m not happy to be on any list of that sort. I hope the police are able to find whoever does this kind of thing. There are unfortunately a lot of people who still spew hate in a variety of forms. This is a pretty direct form. I spend my life trying to do good things’ — Earl Barish (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

WINNIPEG police are asking for the public’s help in tracking down the perpetrators of anti-Semitic posters that were put up around the downtown Friday.

The posters, which are headlined with a reference to Hitler, accuse Mayor Sam Katz of funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of a dozen business people, all but two of whom are Jewish, since he was elected in 2004.

The messages are not signed and there is no reference to any individual or group who might be behind them.

The Free Press is not publishing a photo of the posters or quoting directly from them in order to prevent the spread of its anti-Semitic smear. The posters, which were taped up along Broadway and nearby streets, were reported to the police late Friday evening.

They have since been taken down.

"I consider them anti-Semitic, a hate crime," said David Matas, lawyer for B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy and community volunteer service organization.

"This is systematic, it’s intentional. It wasn’t somebody losing their temper or getting drunk." The dollar sign, used in the headline of the poster, Matas contends, is reminiscent of Nazi propaganda, which said Jews were "corrupt, greedy and controlling the world for their own interests." "This is a reminder and replication of all that," he said. "It picks on Sam Katz and some other people not because of something they did that may have been wrong, but because of a personal attribute, the fact that he’s Jewish." Katz issued the following statement on the posters late Saturday afternoon: "I am extremely saddened and disheartened that an individual, or group of individuals, is posting such material. I have faith that the people of Winnipeg will not support such malice," he said.

Earl Barish, president and CEO of Salisbury House of Canada, the iconic Winnipegbased restaurant chain, was one of the businessmen on the list. He said it saddens him that there are still people in the world who think it’s OK to launch attacks like this.

"I’m not happy to be on any list of that sort. I hope the police are able to find whoever does this kind of thing. There are unfortunately a lot of people who still spew hate in a variety of forms. This is a pretty direct form. I spend my life trying to do good things," he said.

The poster’s contents were also posted on a website named topix.com. It was authored by somebody who goes by "Follow da Money" who lists Winnipeg as their location.

Katz has been under fire recently for having purchased an Arizona-based shell company from the city’s chief administrative officer, Phil Sheegl — a close friend — for $1 as well as a city plan to exchange two old fire halls and a parcel of Fort Rouge land for the Shindico Realty-owned site of a new fireparamedic station. Shindico is controlled by the Shindleman family.

Matas said he can’t recall this kind of activity occurring in Winnipeg in recent years. There weren’t unprovoked attacks against women when Susan Thompson was mayor or against the gay community when Glen Murray succeeded her, he said.

"When the Jewish community is attacked because the mayor is Jewish, it ceases to be criticism of the mayor. It’s a much broader attack. It’s most disconcerting," he said.

Matas said he’s hopeful that an alert passerby may have taken a cellphone picture of somebody putting the posters up. If the person or people responsible are found, he said he would ask the attorney general for consent to prosecute them.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s major crimes unit is heading up the investigation.

Anyone who may have witnessed the posters being printed or posted or has any information regarding the incident is asked to contact police at 204-986-6219 or CrimeStoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca