[Toronto Star] McCallion foe under fire for Hitler reference →
COPYRIGHT THE TORONTO STAR
Published On Fri Oct 15 2010
Mississauga Councillor Sue McFadden shocked a group of Catholic high school students by mentioning Mayor Hazel McCallion in the same sentence as Adolf Hitler.
McFadden and several other wards 9 and 10 candidates attended a discussion with politics and civics students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School Friday afternoon. Grade 12 student Kevin Gouda said he asked McFadden about a Star article published that day in which she had referred to McCallion as a dictator.
“I wanted to know why she called her a dictator,” said Gouda, 17. “She started saying how the mayor likes to do things by herself and she doesn’t like other people’s ideas and then (McFadden) led up to saying ‘she is starting to become a dictator, much like Hitler.’ ”
Gouda said the room of about 50 grades 10 and 12 students fell into a stunned silence.
“Everybody heard her say that. Everyone was in shock after she said that,” he said.
Student Olivia Da Costa, 17, said it was difficult to remember McFadden’s exact wording, but that it was clear she was comparing McCallion to Hitler.
“She just kind of talked about how the mayor was doing her own thing and basically was becoming much like a Hitler,” explained Da Costa. “Everyone was just shocked because she was referring to Hazel as Hitler and everyone loves Hazel.”
Patrick Mendes, who is challenging McFadden for her Ward 10 seat, said he asked her to take back the remark.
“I was appalled,” he said. “(She said) ‘in Mississauga we currently have a dictator and Hazel is a dictator.’ And she gave Hitler as an example.”
McFadden said Mendes “planted” Gouda’s question. She said she made the Hitler reference to explain to the students what a dictatorship is.
“I said, ‘I’ll put it into a metaphor for you.’ Because they’re students, right?” McFadden said.
She said she asked the students to imagine being in a family or classroom where they were unable to express their opinions for fear of repercussions. She then said that was what life was like under Hitler’s regime.
“So I did mention the name Hitler,” McFadden said. “But I didn’t say, ‘oh the mayor is Hitler.’ ”
Bill McBain, who is also running for the Ward 10 seat and participated in the discussion at Mount Carmel, said he was satisfied with McFadden’s explanation that she had only mentioned the Nazi dictator as an example, and not to draw a comparison.
“She unfortunately mentioned the word Hitler … but she did not refer to the mayor as Hitler,” he said. “She was providing historical context for a group of students.”
Either way, mentioning the name Hitler in that type of situation trivializes the Holocaust, said the Canadian Jewish Congress.
“Anytime you invoke the name Hitler you’re invoking a comparison. It’s an obscene comparison to compare Hazel McCallion to Adolf Hitler,” said CEO Bernie Farber.
He said McFadden should have tried to explain the word “dictator” in another way.
“If she wants to have a teachable moment, then pull out a dictionary and give the students a dictionary definition of what a dictator is. By using Adolf Hitler she begs the comparison and students especially will get it wrong,” Farber said.
A school board representative said the teacher who was in the room at the time did not think McFadden had made a direct comparison, but that it was a poor choice of words all the same.
“That’s an unfortunate analogy,” said Bruce Campbell of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.
