A monument in Oakville, Ontario, Canada to Nazi SS members who fought in World War II was vandalized in late June, an act Canadian authorities have now dubbed a hate crime, according to reporting by the Ottawa Citizen.
The monument is to the 14th SS Division, which was made up of Ukrainians who pledged loyalty to Hitler. It was a member of the Waffen SS, a particularly brutal unit in the German army, being accused of multiple war crimes.
The city in southern Ottawa, with a population around 211,000, has a large population of Ukrainian immigrants. The monument is located in the cemetery of St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Church.
Many in the community have questioned law enforcement about how graffiti on a Nazi monument can constitute a “hate crime.”
According to the paper, Const. Steve Elms, spokesman for Halton-Regional Police, cited a section of the Criminal Code that noted those communicating statements in any public place inciting hatred against any identifiable group could face imprisonment not exceeding two years. “This incident occurred to a monument and the graffiti appeared to target an identifiable group,” he explained in an email to questions about how a hate crime could be perpetrated against members of the SS.