One of the puzzling features of my legal troubles up north is that the biggest supporters of Canada’s “human rights” commissions are liberal Jewish groups, who seem convinced that that, without these kangaroo courts, a vast horde of neo-Nazi white supremacists would sweep to power across the land. On, ahem, other sources of Jew hatred in the world today, they seem oddly reticent.

So, naturally, when the Canadian Jewish Congress heard that the village of Swastika, Ontario was about to celebrate its centennial, they wrote to municipal officials “taking exception” to the name both of the village and its only street, Swastika Avenue. You can see their point. If it were proved that National Socialism began in Swastika, Ontario in 1908 and that the Mitteluropean operation was a mere branch office, that might confirm the CJC’s curious priorities.

Alas, town historian Carolyn O’Neil offered The Northern Daily News an alternative explanation:

Swastika has a small lake called Otto Lake with the Amikougami Creek and Blanch River running into it, which to the Cree Indians in Northern Ontario represented joining of the waters. Swas means joining and ika means water.

Presumably the “t” is Cree for “tea”. If you join water to tea, you get a refreshing hot beverage. Which the Canadian Jewish Congress might like to have a nice soothing cup of before they embark on their next campaign to protect Canada from the menace of century-old Ontario place names.