Authorities investigate anti-immigration flyers at York U

Screengrab from City News Canada footage

Local authorities have initiated an investigation regarding anti-immigration flyers handed out at York University’s Keele Street campus in Toronto.

The flyer reads:

“In 1968, York University was nearly 100 per cent white Canadian. According to the York Student Comprehensive Survey, the percentage of white undergraduates decreased from 81 per cent in 1991 to 73 per cent in 1995…

If mass Third World immigration continues, white Canadians will be reduced to a persecuted minority, not only at York, but in their own country!! It doesn’t have to be this way!!”

The York Federation of Students (YFS), together with some university staff, has called out to the University’s administration to investigate the past occurrences and prevent future ones from happening.

A written statement from the Vice-President Equity of the York Federation of Students reads, “We are disturbed and appalled by these blatantly racist flyers… The diversity of the York community is a source of strength and we will not tolerate any kind of hate speech that fosters an unsafe environment for students.”

York University has issued a statement through its Facebook account. It reads:

“Recently a group unaffiliated with York University distributed a poster on our campus using York’s logo and photography without our permission. These posters have caused a great deal of concern within our community. As soon as York was made aware of them, we immediately removed these posters wherever they could be found, and formally instructed the group responsible for creating them to cease and desist using our logo and photos in any communications.

Diversity, inclusiveness and freedom of expression are core values of York University. The racist messages on these posters stand in stark contrast to our values. Going forward, York’s campus services and business operations department and our security services will be increasing their checks for unauthorized posters and any similar communications on campus.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Immigration Watch Canada–the group accused of being the ones behind the flyers–denied the allegations.

“We did authorize the distribution of two flyers at York University, but the flyer [with the York logo] was not authorized by us,” wrote Dan Murray of Immigration Watch Canada to CityNews.

In the past weeks, several anti-immigration flyers were distributed in the Greater Toronto Area–some were even stuffed inside mail boxes in Brampton in early August. See photos below.

Photo courtesy of BarenakedIslam.com

Anti-Immigration flyers distributed in Brampton. Photo courtesy of Voice Online.

With report from City News Canada and Takara Small of Canadian Immigrant News.