Students from the Israeli Students Association (ISA), a CAMERA-supported group, recently discovered copies of the virulently anti-Semitic Your Ward News being distributed on official newsstands throughout York University. The publication was found in highly-frequented areas on campus such as Central Square.
Your Ward News is a neo-Nazi publication that has been accused of spreading “racism, homophobia, misogyny, and anti-Semitism”. This past June, after years of campaigning by an anti-racist coalition called “Standing Together Against Mailing Prejudice” (STAMP), the Canadian Minister of Public Services and Procurement Judy Foote prohibited Canada Post from delivering Your Ward News.
Examples of anti-Semitic content present in the publications found on campus include a vile caricature of human rights lawyer Richard Warman confined in a gas chamber. In the accompanying caption, the editor-in-chief of Your Ward News James Sears says that he “admires Adolf Hitler” and “refuses to accept…a false Hollywood narrative of six million Jews dying in homicidal gas chambers”. In the letters-to-the-editor section, Sears further describes the Holocaust as a “blood libel hoax perpetrated against the German people”.
Another cartoon in the publication depicts Bernie Farber, the former chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress, with a red Star of David on his forehead and horns. Farber is a member of the STAMP coalition and has lambasted Your Ward News for its Holocaust denial, anti-immigrant xenophobia, and homophobia.
ISA members promptly alerted B’nai Brith Canada after the discovery. B’nai Brith notified the York University administration, which promised to “take appropriate steps to ensure that this publication is not being distributed or delivered to locations on campus.”
ISA President Eli Razimor said that it was “disturbing to see such hateful anti-Semitic content being distributed on campus”. Razimor also commended the university administration for their vow to ban the publication.
Contributed by Ben Shachar, CAMERA Fellow at York University.