Photo credit: CTV News
Hamilton’s mayor has sent letters to local businesses, asking them to be aware of an anti-immigration group advertising a conference in the area.
CBC News reports that Mayor Andrea Horwath wrote that, “It is important for local venues to have clear information about the organization and the purpose of the event when considering whether to host it.”
She said she’s proud to lead a diverse city, noting that Dominion Society of Canada – which is promoting an Aug. 29 event called DomCom 26 advocates “remigration, or deporting immigrants back to their home countries.”
On Aug. 4, several Hamilton groups, including the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre (HARRC) and Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, signed an open letter urging businesses and institutions not to rent space to Dominion Society.
Tgy called on elected officials to denounce the group, and asked leaders to commit that their policies and statements “will not contribute to the scapegoating of immigrants and racialised communities that is on the rise in Hamilton.”
As part of the effort, HARRC also published a quote with tips to help venues avoid unwittingly renting to groups it says promote hate.
The website for Dominion Society of Canada, a self-proclaimed nationalist group, espouses the great replacement conspiracy theory, which suggests white people are being replaced by racialized people.
Dominion Society also promotes an agenda that includes the mass deportation of people, including temporary foreign workers, permanent residents and people born in Canada to non-Canadian residents.
On Friday, Barbara Perry, who directs the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University, told CBC that Dominion Society’s arguments are “inherently racist and xenophobic” because they lay the country’s problems at the feet of immigrants.
