TORONTO—A Canadian newspaper has issued an apology for having published an antisemitic cartoon.
The cartoon, drawn by Malcolm Mayes, who has an history of anti-Israel caricatures, depicted an obviously Jewish man with a large nose – similar to antisemitic caricatures used by Joseph Goebbels and Nazi Germany prior to the Holocaust – sitting inside a wallet with a laptop with the words “data hacker” written on it and a Capital One credit card inside the wallet.
The Edmonton Jewish Federation described the cartoon as antisemitic and sent a complaint to the journal and requested a meeting with the editorial board.
The Edmonton Journal later issued the following apology statement :
“On Aug. 1, the Edmonton Journal ran an editorial cartoon depicting a shadowy figure in a wallet next to the words “Data hacker” in relation to the breach of customer information at Capital One.
It has since been pointed out that the image of the person bears resemblance to anti-Semitic tropes prevalent in some anti-Jewish propaganda. This resemblance was entirely unintentional, but given that association, the Edmonton Journal apologizes for the publication of the cartoon.
We are re-examining the procedures we have in place to vet editorial content to avoid future such occurrences.”