TORONTO (March 6, 2018) - Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is shocked by the display of yellow badges by residents during yesterday’s council meeting in the Montreal borough of Outremont. A group of local residents attended the meeting to protest the use of school buses by the Hasidic community throughout the year, calling the buses a nuisance.

“The badges worn by the residents evoked the collective memory of the oppression of the Jewish people who were forced to wear yellow badges pinned to their clothing under Nazi rule, and it should be no surprise why such a display would cause a strong emotional reaction from the Jewish community,” said FSWC President and CEO Avi Benlolo.

Eight people reportedly showed up wearing yellow rectangles, claiming the rectangle represented the buses.

Media Contact:

Avital Borisovsky  
Communications Associate    
416.864.9735 x 29 
aborisovsky@fswc.ca

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Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) is a top Jewish human rights foundation in Canada's organized Jewish community. It directly impacts over 100,000 people each year and 500,000+ peripherally. FSWC is committed to countering racism and antisemitism and to promoting the principles of tolerance, social justice and Canadian democratic values through advocacy and educational programs including workshops, Freedom Day, Spirit of Hope Benefit, Tools for Tolerance and the widely acclaimed Tour for Humanity. FSWC is affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization headquartered in Los Angeles which has won two Academy Awards, has built two Museums of Tolerance (with a third being built in Jerusalem) and is an NGO at the United Nations, UNESCO, OAS, OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament. Visit us at www.fswc.ca. 

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