Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson poses with his Grammy for best jazz
instrumental performance at the 21st annual Grammy Awards presentation
in Los Angeles, California, on February 16, 1979. (AP Photo/Lennox
McLendon)
By Julie Masis
Today, 3:32 am
MONTREAL — For more than half a century, a busy metro station in
Montreal is named after an anti-Semitic admirer of fascism. Now,
thousands of Quebecois have signed a petition to rename the station —
thanks to the initiative of a Muslim Montrealer and momentum from the
Black Lives Matter movement.
“Anti-Semitism has no place in our society. There should be no monuments and no landmarks named after people who believe in such despicable ideologies,” said Naveed Hussain, a nurse who started the petition while recovering at home from a case of COVID-19.
“Anti-Semitism has no place in our society. There should be no monuments and no landmarks named after people who believe in such despicable ideologies,” said Naveed Hussain, a nurse who started the petition while recovering at home from a case of COVID-19.
Instead, Hussain wants the station to be named after renowned Black jazz
pianist Oscar Peterson, who grew up in the neighborhood.
"None of the metro stations [in Montreal] are named after a person of
color, none are named after Jewish people,” Hussain said. “I believe we
need to treasure these individuals who brought so much fame and renown
to our city.”
About a week after Hussain launched the online petition, it had gotten over 16,000 signatures. As of June 29, it has climbed to 18,600 — and counting.
“He is a fascist. He said so himself,” Delisle said. “I doubt very much that he changed his ideas afterwards. Maybe he became careful during the war because he couldn’t openly support the Axis powers while Canada was at war with Germany. Lionel Groulx represents French extreme right-wing nationalism.”
The 2002 documentary film “Je Me Souviens” about anti-Semitism and fascism in Quebec opens with this striking quote from Groulx, made in April of 1933: “The Jewish problem could be solved, not only in Montreal, but also from one end of Quebec to the other. There would be no more Jews left here, other than those who could survive by living off of one another. The rest would clear out or would be forced to disperse and seek their livelihood in something other than business.”
Yet the Montreal metro station is not the only landmark named after Groulx. There is also a Lionel Groulx college, as well as numerous streets named in his honor throughout the province.
A long history of Canadian anti-Semitism
The Lionel-Groulx metro station is a hub through which thousands of people pass every day, yet it’s unlikely that many of them know who Lionel Groulx was or what he stood for.
A cursory historical search will
reveal that Groulx was a Catholic priest who some say was the father of
French Canadian nationalism in the 1920s and ’30s.
But historian Esther Delisle, who wrote a book about far-right political
movements in Quebec, says that he was also a vocal anti-Semite who
opposed the immigration of Jewish refugees to Quebec during the
Holocaust and called for a boycott of Jewish businesses in Montreal.
“He is a fascist. He said so himself,” Delisle said. “I doubt very much that he changed his ideas afterwards. Maybe he became careful during the war because he couldn’t openly support the Axis powers while Canada was at war with Germany. Lionel Groulx represents French extreme right-wing nationalism.”
The 2002 documentary film “Je Me Souviens” about anti-Semitism and fascism in Quebec opens with this striking quote from Groulx, made in April of 1933: “The Jewish problem could be solved, not only in Montreal, but also from one end of Quebec to the other. There would be no more Jews left here, other than those who could survive by living off of one another. The rest would clear out or would be forced to disperse and seek their livelihood in something other than business.”
Yet the Montreal metro station is not the only landmark named after Groulx. There is also a Lionel Groulx college, as well as numerous streets named in his honor throughout the province.
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