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Niagara Falls
Friday, March 29, 2024
Editorial: Lets eradicate hate speech

Niagara-on-the-Lake prides itself on being a welcoming, friendly, beautiful town.

Though the town’s populace is predominantly white, NOTL is overwhelmingly accepting of people of different races, sexual orientation, cultures, religions, ages, and lifestyle choices.

The Lake Report has always encouraged acceptance and diversity. So when we learned that posters promoting hatred are again circulating in town, we knew we had to investigate and shine a bright light on this odious practice.

The posters contain racist, anti-immigration rhetoric such as, “Is diversity a code word for anti-white?” and “We’ll be a minority by 2050. Canadians were never consulted about this ethnic cleansing.”

This is white supremacist hate speech and should not be tolerated in our town. In case the people putting up these posters have forgotten, most Canadians are immigrants.

So, what are they really trying to say with these flyers? It’s fearmongering, it’s cowardly and it’s dog-whistle race-baiting that plays to the lowest common denominator in society.

The creator of the group that calls itself the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee identifies himself as Shawn. When contacted by The Lake Report, he refused to comment on whether he was even affiliated with the group. Even the person running this group seems ashamed to admit it.

That speaks volumes.

Business owners have been removing the posters from their bulletin boards, which the paper commends.

We encourage residents to follow suit and remove these flyers if they appear again.

And, as for those cowards spreading the hate, your rhetoric has no place in civil society. Crawl back under your rock.

editor@niagaranow.com

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