A heavily amended version of a Victoria councillor’s motion asking staff to prioritize the removal of antisemitic graffiti and determine if any city funding was used to support antisemitic actions was passed after extensive debate on Thursday.
Council, sitting as committee of the whole, endorsed a version of Coun. Marg Gardiner’s motion that would have staff determine if any city funding has been used to support discriminatory activities while prioritizing the removal of graffiti that is likely to be offensive, abusive, hateful or threatening.
They also re-affirmed the work city staff have been doing to deal with actions designed to create hate and division in the community.
Gardiner, citing reports of an increase in discriminatory behaviour and particularly antisemitism across Canada, said she was motivated by allegations that taxpayer funds may have been used directly or indirectly to promote antisemitic speech.
She also noted graffiti that targets ethnicity, religion, gender, or participants in geopolitical disputes of war divides the community.
Gardiner said it’s important for the city to make a statement about what it’s doing to deal with discriminatory speech.
Her original motion, which was put forward last week but moved to this week’s meeting due to time constraints, raised the ire of a number of groups, including Independent Jewish Voices Victoria, which organized a protest outside city hall on Thursday.
The group suggested Gardiner was wrong to cite weekly demonstrations against the Israeli military assault on Gaza as evidence of antisemitism in Victoria.
In a statement, the group said Gardiner was conflating criticism of the state of Israel with hatred of and discrimination against Jews.
Group member Bobby Arbess, who is Jewish, said Gardiner owed an apology to “the peaceful organizers” of the rallies and student encampment at UVic, who ware calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
“They have been absurdly characterized as antisemitic for participating in a global call to stop a genocide,” he said in the statement.
During deliberations Thursday, Coun. Dave Thompson invited Gardiner to withdraw the motion, as staff had made it clear they already act on discriminatory speech and graffiti.
William Doyle, Victoria’s assistant director of public works, told council that last year, there were 1,167 reports of graffiti, of which 75 per cent were deemed offensive, an estimated increase of about 20 per cent from the previous year.
Doyle said city staff already prioritize offensive graffiti for removal.
Kerri Moore, the city’s director of business and community relations, added that the city’s grant programs specify that projects that include profanity, violence, pornography, public incitement, promotion of hatred or any forms of discrimination as defined by the Canadian Human Rights Act are ineligible for funding, and that staff regularly review the programs.
When Gardiner refused to withdraw the motion, Thompson said it was unfortunate as “we’ve received dozens and dozens of emails from members of the Jewish community pointing out how divisive this motion is.”
But he agreed to support the motion when it was further amended to re-affirm staff’s ongoing work.
“I can support the wording of this motion, but I will reiterate that dozens and dozens of members of the Jewish community wrote to council to point out how divisive the original motion was and how divisive the background was,” he said.
Coun. Chris Coleman said the original wording was divisive and the fact the motion maintained its original title was unfortunate.
“When we deal with discrimination of any type, we have to react,” he said. “Discrimination, whether it comes from graffiti or the spoken word, it always has to be stood up to.
“So the wording of the amended motion is supportable, but it’s going to force us to have a long-term, much deeper discussion about how we all get along together.”
