Council votes to keep 'Swastika Trail' name

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 20, 2017
By Lisa Rutledge

A street in southern Ontario will retain the name "Swastika Trail" after Puslinch Township council voted 4-1 against changing the privately-owned street name during a meeting on Wednesday evening.

The matter arose last month when B'nai Brith Canada launched an online petition calling on the township about 75 kilometres west of Toronto to change the street name.

Nearly two months ago, members of the neighbourhood association held their own vote in which the majority of residents said they wanted to keep the name by a vote of 25-20.

At Wednesday's meeting, council members said they did not want to overstep the democratic actions already taken by residents.

Local residents say Swastika Trail was named in the 1920s before the rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Those in support of keeping the name have argued the symbol had a long history before the Second World War while others said the name is associated with hate and genocide. (CTV)