The Osheaga festival was forced to apologize on Monday after a guest artist showed up to its concert on Saturday wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a swastika.
The organization took care to recall that the British rapper Slowthai sought by this clothing to denounce fascism, but it nevertheless regrets that some may have felt offended. “We offer our most sincere apologies to all those who may have misinterpreted this message and who felt hurt by it”, could one read on the Twitter account of the event that took place all weekend at Parc Jean-Drapeau.
The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) later said it hopes Osheaga promoter Evenko will go even further by explaining how this could have happened and promising that such an event will not happen. will not repeat. “Let’s be clear: Nazi imagery is not a fad, and it is never appropriate to spread it. the [croix gammée] remains the ultimate emblem of anti-Semitism, and a symbol of hatred of Jews and Jewess all over the world,” CIJA Vice President Eta Yudin said in a letter to Evenko.
CIJA also got in touch with Slowthai to get him to explain.
A few hours later, the artist in turn apologized, taking care all the same to specify that the word ” destroy (“destroy”) preceded the swastika on his t-shirt. “I apologize to anyone who was offended by the anti-fascism and anti-regime t-shirt I was wearing and the symbol on it,” he said. on his Twitter account.
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