By Kevin Martel

White supremacist group fools Regina into proclaiming “European Heritage Week”

Aug 20, 2013 | 5:41 PM

Plans for Regina to celebrate something being called “European Heritage Week” are being cancelled after it was revealed a white supremacist group is behind the event.

Civic proclamations are generally granted as a way of recognizing or bringing attention to significant issues, historical occasions, or charitable events. The city confirms that at some point earlier this year it received a request to have a week in October proclaimed as “European Heritage Week.”

They Mayor's office, assuming it was meant to celebrate the contributions of European civilizations to Canada, granted the request.

“I thought this was very much an innocuous request to have a proclamation,” Fougere explained in an interview Tuesday.

The request was made by the Nationalist Party Of Canada. What the Mayor didn't realize, at least not until News Talk Radio informed him, is that the Nationalist Party is a white supremacy group.

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“We were hoodwinked on that one,” Fougere admitted.

He said the group's intent wasn't clear and the request was clearly misleading. He says the city will take the proclamation back immediately, insisting they obviously do not want to have any association with a white pride group.

“We're going to revoke this proclamation because we certainly don't want to attach ourselves to this organization.”

Fougere insists he'll learn from the mistake, accepting full responsibility for not catching the connection.

But it's also worth noting that Regina isn't the first city to fall for the seemingly-harmful request. Halifax and Victoria have made the same mistake in the past.

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow

by Kevin Martel

White supremacist group fools Regina into proclaiming “European Heritage Week”

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