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 Monday's 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 B'nai Brith Canada.
"A lot of people use terms like that. They don't necessarily know where it comes from or why it means what it does," Eskenasi said.
B'nai Brith regularly responds to incidents of bigotry targeting Jews, but in cases like Clark's the organization prefers education over confrontation.
"We can take him at face value. We don't need to argue with that if he's being sincere in his apology. But we'd 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 people's desire to be offensive. They're just trying to make a point and they don't realize the word they're using are a very, very poor choice."
