"European Heritage Week" was submitted to various town councils by "Don Andrews, 66, leader of the defunct white supremacist Nationalist Party of Canada, who drafted the three-line resolution in the east-end Toronto rooming house that, in the 1980s, served as a rallying point for the disaffected racists who would go on to form the neo-Nazi Heritage Front." In some cases the towns passed the submission without realizing this resolution was based on so-called "racial awareness."
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Mayor Richard Adams of Parry Sound, a busy port town and railway hub in Ontario cottage country that is famous as the birthplace of Bobby Orr, stands by his council's unanimous vote, "in the interests of better understanding and appreciation of our institutions, history and culture and our multi-ethnic society ... to celebrate the contribution of European civilization of our country."
"There's nothing nasty about this resolution. It's an actual fact," Mr. Adams said. "Council voted for that resolution based on the fact that this country was founded by Europeans.... When you read the resolution, it's harmless. What it says is the truth."
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An hour's drive down Georgian Bay in Midland, Mayor Jim Downer had a different reaction upon learning his council had been duped by a racist, just like the city governments of Halifax, London, Fredericton, Victoria, Charlottetown and many others once were. Lamenting his own "naivete," he said he intends to "absolutely, ASAP" do what those other cities all did, and bring a motion to rescind it at the next opportunity.
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Municipalities receive dozens of similar requests each year for many worthy causes, and they are reluctant to refuse controversial ones, mindful that in 1997, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal found that London, Ont., discriminated against gays by refusing to proclaim a Pride Day. As Donna Besman, clerk of Parry Sound's council, put it, "We pretty much pass everything."
"There's nothing nasty about this resolution. It's an actual fact," Mr. Adams said. "Council voted for that resolution based on the fact that this country was founded by Europeans.... When you read the resolution, it's harmless. What it says is the truth."
* * *
An hour's drive down Georgian Bay in Midland, Mayor Jim Downer had a different reaction upon learning his council had been duped by a racist, just like the city governments of Halifax, London, Fredericton, Victoria, Charlottetown and many others once were. Lamenting his own "naivete," he said he intends to "absolutely, ASAP" do what those other cities all did, and bring a motion to rescind it at the next opportunity.
* * *
Municipalities receive dozens of similar requests each year for many worthy causes, and they are reluctant to refuse controversial ones, mindful that in 1997, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal found that London, Ont., discriminated against gays by refusing to proclaim a Pride Day. As Donna Besman, clerk of Parry Sound's council, put it, "We pretty much pass everything."