City of North Vancouver councillor Rod Clark has publicly apologized for using a racial slur during a council debate on Monday night.
Council was discussing the difficult relationship it has with Port Metro Vancouver when Clark said the city was being jewed down by the port.
I used a racial stereotype when describing the actions of Port Metro Vancouver. I deeply regret this reference, which was made in the heat of the moment. It was a very bad mistake. I offer a heartfelt and profound apology to any and all who were offended by my words, he said in an email to local media Tuesday night.
When forced by the mayor to retract the statement at Mondays meeting, Clark said it had no religious overtones.
While blatant anti-Semitism is less widespread today, incidents like the one at city council are still sadly common, according to Sam Eskenasi, commutations officer for Bnai Brith Canada.
A lot of people use terms like that. They dont necessarily know where it comes from or why it means what it does, Eskenasi said.
Bnai Brith regularly responds to incidents of bigotry targeting Jews, but in cases like Clarks the organization prefers education over confrontation.
We can take him at face value. We dont need to argue with that if hes being sincere in his apology. But wed definitely want to meet with him and fill him in on why this is offensive not just to Jews but to other people, Eskenasi said.
Most of it is not coming from peoples desire to be offensive. Theyre just trying to make a point and they dont realize the word theyre using are a very, very poor choice.
