A cenotaph and other locations in downtown Regina have been vandalized with anti-Zionist graffiti just days after provincial and national elected leaders marked Holocaust Memorial Day.The memorial dedicated to victims of the Second World War was spray-painted in white with a Shield of David, a six-sided star that is on the Israeli flag. The words "rape kill children" surrounded the symbol. Above this was "zoinst", an apparent misspelling of Zionist. On the back side, the slogan, "Save Gaza was painted."A bus stop window Inside the symbol was the word "kids" with the words "rape", "kill", and "steel" surrounding it.On a separate bus stop in front of the Cornwall Centre, "All eyes on Raffah" was spray-painted, along with "Zoinist rape kids" and "Save Gaza.""Zoinst rape and kill children" was also painted on an 11th avenue sidewalk downtown, flanked with the Shield of David..On Monday, Saskatchewan Party MLA for Saskatoon Northwest and Minister of Advanced Education Gordon Wyant issued a statement in acknowledgement of Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day."Just last year the world witnessed the largest collective murder of Jewish people since the Holocaust on October 7th. This event shows how important it is to remember the evil that antisemitism continues to perpetrate on the world, and it also highlights the strength of the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diasporas abroad," Wyant told the legislature."The Holocaust didn’t just start with concentration camps. It started when regular people didn’t speak out against antisemitism, when the Nazi regime was able to weaponize people against each other, when neighbours were turned against one another. We remember each day the rise of antisemitism in our country."Mr. Speaker, this day is very personal to me. Mr. Speaker, save for a very few members of my family, almost all of my father’s family was exterminated in the death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Flossenbürg, Ravensbrück, just to name a few. Only by the grace of God did my father escape, and as a family we remember those who died and what they would have contributed."As members of a democratic society, it’s our duty to stand together against fascism and antisemitism. There is no place for antisemitism or hatred of any kind in Saskatchewan or in this nation. Never forget."In an interview with Western Standard, prior to the vandalism, Wyant said remembering history is the best way to not repeat it."It's so important these days because we see a rise in anti-semitism across the world. We're seeing protests across universities in the United States and now into Canada. And these are really very, very, very difficult things . . . how this kind of hatred can give rise to significant difficulties in your society," Wyant said."It's one of the reasons why the government a number of years ago introduced mandatory Holocaust education in our classrooms. And I'm very pleased to see a number of provinces across the country and Manitoba just recently introducing mandatory Holocaust education in the classroom."
