(JTA) — Stickers that seem to blame Jews for the spread of the coronavirus were found posted throughout Halifax, the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
The sticker reads “The Bug That Backfired COVID-19,” flanked by a Star of David and a symbol of the Freemasons.
The stickers were found throughout downtown Halifax and on some university campuses, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported on Sunday.
The Atlantic Jewish Council, which represents the Jewish communities of eastern Canada, called the stickers a “malicious blood libel” in a tweet.
“The implication is that the Jewish community was the cause of COVID-19, which obviously is completely false and very anti-Semitic,” Naomi Rosenfeld, the council’s executive director, told the CBC.
Independent Jewish Voices, a grassroots anti-racism organization, said the stickers are part of a trend of right-wing and white-supremacist hatred toward vulnerable minority groups.
“Fighting and educating against antisemitism must therefore be part of a larger struggle against all group hatred and discrimination, IJV said in a statement.
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