Kingston-area MPP Randy Hillier is yet again at the centre of a social media firestorm.
The independent politician posted a tweet over the holiday weekend that compared Ontario’s COVID-19 public health measures to the Holocaust. This was in reaction to the recent shutdown implemented across Ontario.
In his tweet, Hillier compared the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Thousands of Twitter users went after Hillier for his tweet, calling for him to be banned from Twitter, to resign, and for the post to be taken down. As of Tuesday morning, it is still up.
Debbie Fitzerman, president of the Kingston Jewish Council, called the tweet “obscene” and “despicable.”
“How dare he. I guess that’s what we have to say to him, how dare he. He has stepped over a line, and as a public servant, it is unacceptable,” Fitzerman said.
Hillier did not respond to multiple requests from Global News for comment.
However, he doubled down on his stance, replying on Twitter to an infectious disease epidemiology PhD student who said this quote was “a new low” for Hillier.
Hillier said that Doug Ford and public health bureaucrats are deceiving the public, which he said would be remembered as “the greatest crime.”
Hillier’s tweet comes just before a very significant observance in the Jewish faith.
“This week is Yom HaShoah, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. So, I mean, if he could have picked a worse time, I don’t think he could have,” Fitzerman said
Still, there were also those who voiced support for Hillier, saying he is quote “telling the truth” and “that he’s on to something.”
Despite growing calls for Hillier to be removed or step down from his role as an MPP, there is no mechanism in place to do so, other than a provincial election.
The next time voters will head the polls will be sometime before June of next year.