Following a swift outcry, including a petition with more than 6,000 signatures, Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold has released the city’s first public statement since its decision not to allow a menorah to be displayed outside city hall.
Arnold said in the statement that the city “acted too quickly.”
“The City wanted to be more inclusive toward our community by repositioning these faith symbols; however, we obviously fell short in this transition,” the statement said.
“We apologize if our actions showed a lack of support toward any members of our community.”
The mayor’s statement did not specify what would happen next, but it’s expected to come up at a council meeting late this afternoon.
The original decision was made behind closed doors on an unspecified date. The mayor’s office and city communications director Isabelle Leblanc previously ignored any requests for comment.
Coun. Bryan Butler, who opposed the decision to not display the menorah, said the public response is unlike anything he has seen before.
“I would say not just [from] the province and Canada and maybe even across the world — we’ve been getting emails. I’ve never had this many emails about any other topic since I got on council 2016. So people are really upset at this,” he said.
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Coun. Dave Steeves, who made a statement on Facebook opposing the decision, said he will present a motion at Monday’s council meeting to reverse the decision. Butler plans to second the motion.
“I’m all for religious celebrations and there’s a lot of sensitivities around the season right now, and that’s what makes the timing of this decision of the council so poor,” Steeves said.
“We’re only days away from Hanukkah, and we’re weeks away from Christmas … and it’s obviously upset a lot of people because of the ill-timed decision.”
The motion would need to be supported by six of the 11 council members to go forward.
“We’ll have to wait and see what the rest of the council does,” Butler said. “I’m hoping that we’ll be able to reverse this.”
“I trust that my fellow counselors will do the right thing and reverse this decision,” Steeves said.
Both Steeves and Butler voiced their support for the city’s Jewish community. Neither offered comment on what took place in that original meeting and why it was not done in public.
The decision, according to a statement released by Moncton’s Jewish community last week, cited separation of church and state as the rationale.
While the menorah and nativity scene were removed, Christmas ornaments such as a wreath and angels can still be found surrounding the city hall property, an inconsistency community members said were indicative of discrimination.