When it was suggested some people might think her joke about a solemn site like Auschwitz may also speak to her values, Johnstone said she didn’t know what the infamous concentration-extermination camp was until that day.
The Hamilton Jewish Federation also expressed astonishment Johnstone didn’t know about the hub of Adolf Hitler’s “final solution” in Nazi-occupied Poland. “We think all candidates of public office should have basic knowledge of major atrocities and events such as the Holocaust”.
A social worker by training, she graduated from McMaster University and has worked with the YWCA and volunteers with the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction.
“Regardless of what happens this election, I have reached out to B’nai Brith and personally pledged to work with their experts to raise awareness about the ever increasing need to combat racism, discrimination and anti-semitism”.
Asked Tuesday night if she is concerned the story might hurt her politically in what is widely seen as a tight race, Johnstone responded that despite attacks against her, she’s been running a clean campaign. “It gives people an excuse for why they wouldn’t consider her anymore”. “I’m just shocked that someone in her position doesn’t know what Auschwitz is”.
Website The True North Times found her comment while digging into her past to “get a better feel for what the candidate is all about”.
Leaders in the Jewish community reacted with dismay on Thursday after it was revealed that Alex Johnstone, the NDP candidate in Hamilton, Ont., referred to fence posts at Auschwitz as being phallic on Facebook in 2008.
She’s running against Liberal Filomena Tassi, Conservative Vincent Samuel and the Green’s Peter Ormond.
In a Facebook note, Alex Johnstone conceded she should not have made her remarks.
“We expect our staff and students to have an understanding of the Holocaust and believe we should model this as trustees”, chair Todd White said.
Under the Ontario school curriculum, the basics of the Holocaust usually crop up around Grade 9.
“Look, it’s possible that she was embarrassed and this was her quick, silly response”, he offered. “Our approach is to turn this into an opportunity with a positive slant”, he said.
Johnstone is just the latest of many candidates during this election to come to grief over comments on social media. Liberal Party candidate Ala Buzreba had to drop out of a race after saying an Israel supporter’s mother should have been aborted with a coat hanger.
Johnstone has been a public school trustee for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board since she was first elected in 2010.