A Victoria businessman is raising concerns after his conversation with the province’s Racist Incident Helpline.
Solomon Siegel was at Victoria’s Pride Parade last week and says he saw a booth selling a shirt with the word ‘intifada’ on it. The Arabic word means a rebellion or uprising.
He described the shirt as having pictures of children on it with a Palestinian flag and an anti-zionist phrase.
When Siegel, the owner of the well-known Victoria restaurant Pagliacci’s, got home, he said he called the newly established hotline but said he became angry with what he heard from the person on the other end of the phone.
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“Immediately, the person said intifada means struggle and there is a genocide going on, and I said, ‘Excuse me, you understand the history of these words,'” Siegel told Global News.
The Racist Incident Helpline is funded by the provincial government but administered by the United Way.
The parliamentary secretary for racism in B.C. said she called Siegel and apologized.
“It is not for the hotline to judge, they are there to provide supports,” Jessie Sunner said.
“It (is) something that should have happened and didn’t.”
The booth with the t-shirt was run by an independent vendor.
“We have generally accepted we allow these marginal groups to define their racism and on an anti racism hotline, as a Jewish person, I was not afforded that,” Siegel said.
Sunner said the province is now ensuring the United Way will be adding additional staff training following this incident.
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