Ontario Town Votes to Keep ‘Swastika Trail’

Last night was anything but a typical council meeting in Puslinch, Ontario.

Instead of the usual votes on parks and the minutiae of local finance, the five-member council voted on whether or not to rename Swastika Trail—a local, privately owned road that has sparked a national debate about heritage versus human rights.

Although the council ultimately voted to keep the controversial name, residents who say they’re embarrassed to give out their address say they won’t let the matter rest.

Rows of chairs were filled by roughly 60 people, including residents, supporters, and members of Jewish advocacy organization B’nai Brith, who were contacted by a resident from the street—which is home to roughly 50 residents—to back the seemingly uncontroversial opinion that Swastika Trail is a problematic name for a street in 2017. Two uniformed OPP officers were stationed near the back of the room.

“I don’t usually get involved with municipal politics,” Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith, was heard saying to a colleague. “But this is ridiculous.”

Proponents of the name change claimed they experienced embarrassment each time they pulled out their driver’s licence. A few years ago, a child who lived on the street was nearly suspended from school for writing Swastika on the sidewalk—a word he only knew as the name of his street.

The issue has come up periodically in the neighbourhood for decades. This time, though, neither side is backing down. On November 1, the majority of Swastika Trail residents voted in favour of keeping the name. Residents in favour of changing the name, who lost by five votes, then decided to take the issue to politicians and human rights organizations.

Mayor Dennis Lever and all four Puslinch councillors sat at the front of the main hall in the Puslinch Community Centre. Council meetings are typically held in the township office, but this meeting was moved in anticipation of high attendance, given the attention this battle has received from national and international press, including the Times of Israel.

Lever has said that this debate would not be happening if this were a public road—the street would simply have been renamed. The fact that the street is privately owned makes the issue more complex.

Delegates were given 10 minutes each to make their case. Swastika Trail resident Lori Wyszynski was the first to speak. The room was silent as she approached the podium, other than the incessant rattling of old heating vents.

“Swastika Trail was named in 1920 by its original owner, Ross Barber, long before World War II,” Wyszynski said, as she shared details of the swastika symbol’s origin and meaning, prior to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party adopting and forever changing the nature of the symbol. She accused residents in favour of the renaming of being hurtful bullies with a closed-minded approach. “I spoke to Mr. Barber’s grandson recently,” she continued, “and he assured me that his grandfather was anything but a racist.”

“This street should have been renamed in 1945,” proclaimed Bill Knetsch, a long-time resident whose family fought against the Nazis in during their occupation of The Netherlands. “When we watched the riots in Charlottesville this summer, with protesters wearing and waving the swastika so proudly, was it the ancient religious symbol of peace and good luck that came to mind?”

Puslinch, a town of about 7,000, in south-central Ontario is overwhelmingly white and Christian. The 2011 census said not a single Jewish person lived in the town and only 300 people identified as visible minorities.

The presentations continued for over two hours, as residents in favour of keeping the name shared stories of their heritage and hometown pride. Some claimed they viewed this as a teaching moment, and an opportunity to reclaim and restore the swastika’s original meaning.

“We can’t move forward if we are constantly looking back,” resident Donna O’Krafka said to council. “To hell with Hitler, we came up with the name first!”

Those in favour of changing the name said the swastika’s origin was irrelevant given its greater association with hatred and bigotry. Michael Mostyn shared a petition facilitated by B’nai Brith with over 2,000 signatures from citizens in favour of renaming the street.

Jim and Jennifer Horton, who have lived on the street since 2009, presented their denied application for a vanity plate containing the word swastika.

“I paid the $310 fee and submitted the application to see how the Ontario government felt about the word,” Jim Horton said. “They promptly denied our application, and informed us that the word has falls into the category of human rights discrimination.”

After the presentations, each councillor as well as the mayor read statements. All except one councillor spoke of the importance of respecting the results from the November 1 vote.

“Not honouring this vote would be disrespectful to the democracy and beliefs that our countrymen fought and died for,” said Councillor Susan Fielding, “and for this reason, I will be voting against the renaming.”

Other councillors saw it differently.

“This is not simply a local matter, this is a bigger political issue,” noted Councillor John Sepulis. “The word swastika is viewed negatively by the majority of our society. To try and convince people otherwise, given our unique circumstances, would be fruitless.”

A vote was held, and the majority voted 4-1 in favour of maintaining the name. Councillor Sepulis was the only one who showed dissent.

“Council had their minds made up before any of us spoke,” said Jennifer Horton. “They didn’t ask a single question and all reading prepared statements. What was the point of any of us speaking?”

“I’m glad it’s over and I hope it stays that way,” said O’Krafka. She believes that the residents may eventually reconcile, but a doesn’t plan on initiating contact with those on the other side of the debate at this time.

The room lacked the expected air of defeat, and residents on the wrong side of tonight’s vote were adamant that this is not the end.

“We will absolutely be pursuing this with the Ontario government as a human rights issue,” said Horton. “The denial of our licence plate application is proof that this name needs to go.”

“I feel validated that our democratic process was upheld by council,” said Natalia Busch, who spoke in favour of keeping the street name. “This whole thing has torn our community in half, and I hope that now, we can go back to normal. I think if council had gone the other way, it would have started a war.”

“They spoke about democracy and process, but I don’t think either of those were respected today,” said Mostyn. “You heard from several residents that the voting system was flawed, and it was not overseen by the municipal government. We will proceed accordingly with the knowledge that at the provincial level, this word is classified by our government as human rights discrimination.”

Shannon McDermott is a writer and 2018 Global Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.