More than a dozen swastikas were spray-painted or rendered with chalk in locations all over Côte St. Luc over the past two weeks. There was a similar outbreak of anti-semitic graffiti in Côte St. Luc at about this time last year, prompting some to speculate it is the work of an anti-semitic gang, or perhaps just teenagers bored during the summertime.

During city council’s monthly meeting last Monday evening, Toby Shulman, a resident, raised the issue with Housefather. “I’m very concerned,” she said, “regarding the swastikas all around Côte St. Luc.

“I’m wondering what the city, the police and the VCoPs are doing about this, and why the police are saying that it’s been done by just a few teens, rather than labeling it hate crime, which I think that it is.”

“There is absolutely no evidence at this point that this is a hate crime,” replied Housefather. “There were two nights in July — July 25 and July 30,” he said. “The first night, 10 swastikas were put in chalk or in spray paint in locations in the city and on July 30 there were four.

“It happened last fall, as well. We had a period of a week where we had some swastika incidents and then it stopped. And then this is coming back one more time. It hasn’t happened in the last 10 days.” Housefather noted that none of the places where the incidents recently took place were Jewish institutions.

“They were public property or they were the sides of buildings,” he said. “And to be honest, the most likely scenario — although it’s not the only one that police are investigating — is that it was local teenagers that would have done it.

“At this point it hasn’t been done in 11 days and I don’t want to overblow something to claim something is an anti-semitic incident when we don’t know the origin of it or who did it. So let’s wait and see.

“Let’s hope the police can find the culprit and that it doesn’t happen again. But I don’t want to unduly worry residents. There’s been nothing in Côte St. Luc in terms of threat, in terms of violence, in terms of anything that would amount to proven anti-semitism. This could be a kid who doesn’t even know what a swastika is.

“Although that would be very ignorant it’s possible. So we’ll follow it up and, of course, our police, our public security department and our VCoPs are all taking it very seriously. They’re all out looking to make sure that our if they see anything, that it’s reported to the police immediately.”

Dr. Bernard Tonchin, another resident and regular attendee at Côte St. Luc council meetings, disagreed with Housefather on the graffiti’s anti-semitic overtones. “Certainly I think we should consider it for the time being a hate crime,” he said, “because we have many holocaust survivors still residing in Côte St. Luc.”