Last Wednesday, L’Acadie Nouvelle, the province’s main French language newspaper, published a political cartoon that has angered and frightened some New Brunswickers.

The cartoon depicts a caveman carrying a club and dragging a cavewoman behind him by the hair. Below that, it shows a man dressed in a turban and robe, carrying a rifle, with a woman wearing a head covering, crawling behind him on a leash. The caption reads, “L’évolution”.

Hear this story as reported on CHMA's Tantramar Report:

Saly Davis lives in the Tantramar area and although she’s not an Acadie Nouvelle subscriber, it wasn’t long before someone shared a screen shot of the cartoon with her.

When CHMA spoke to her the day after it was published, Davis said her phone was still blowing up from people discussing the potential impact of the publication. Davis says the publication is “terrifying, because I know there are white supremacists that will take action in the city,” said Davis. “I have lived it growing up.”

Davis grew up in the Moncton area, the child of immigrant parents. She says she suffered from violent bullying and abuse during those years. She’s also keenly aware of the rise in hate crimes in Canada in recent years. Earlier this month, Statistics Canada released figures documenting a 72% increase in hate crimes in the two years from 2019 to 2021. Stats Can says hate crimes targetting religions accounted for most of the overall increase.

When Davis first saw the cartoon, she immediately called her sister who lives in Ontario, the province where last year a man targetted a Muslim family walking along the street, and ran them down, killing four people.

“It started that dialogue with my sister of, okay, first and foremost, are you okay? Are we actually processing what is happening? Is this actual hate-pushing?” The two concluded, “this is no different than any other hate propaganda.”

The cartoon was published on page 12 of the August 17 paper edition of L’Acadie Nouvelle. Davis says she had a hard time finding a paper copy after she found out about it, but eventually bought the last copy at a convenience store. (You can check out the cartoon for yourself at this blog post by Davis’s partner and Blacklantic podcaster Clinton Davis.)

Acadie Nouvelle boasts a daily circulation of 20,000 print and digital copies, with a daily readership of 43,000.

The cartoon was also published on the paper’s website, but the online cartoon was swiftly removed by L’Acadie Nouvelle. The editor of the paper, Francis Sonier, declined comment on the removal to CHMA via email, saying instead that the paper was “not used to justifying our editorial choices in the same way that we do not ask other media outlets to do so.”

But Sonier told Global News reporter Suzanne Lapointe that the cartoon, drawn by regular contributor Marcel Boudreau, was “a comment on the behaviour of the Taliban in a specific part of the world, Afghanistan. Nothing else.”

Saly Davis says she tried to give the paper and cartoonist the benefit of the doubt, but ultimately feels that it depicts a large population of people, and dehumanizes them. She sees the potential for the cartoon to inspire violence against a number of different communities, by stoking Islamophobia.

“The fact is, the education system has failed in educating the population as to what the difference is between any of these cultures,” says Davis. “And when they look at pictures like this, they don’t know if it’s a Sikh, they don’t know if it’s a Muslim, but they compile them all as Muslim.” That’s how Islamophobia ends up affecting other groups as well, says Davis.

“We can’t even remotely start educating our population enough to be able to protect the people that we’re bringing from outside,” says Davis. “We pretend like this is a great place to raise a family if you’re not a white person.”

Davis says that racism and Islamophobia are not properly acknowledged in New Brunswick. “There is a very profound history of racism here,” says Davis. “This isn’t a one-off.”

Fostering feelings of anger and hate

Abid Sheikh is with the Muslim Association of New Brunswick. He had not yet seen the cartoon in question when CHMA spoke to him, but he was able to guess relatively accurately at the imagery nonetheless: “They’ll probably show a bearded figure with a turban and a dagger or a gun in their hand, and ready to kill everybody,” says Sheikh.

Sheikh says that its “very alarming” for the cartoon to show up in New Brunswick. “That cartoon is a hate message,” says Sheikh. “This newspaper did not do any service to New Brunswickers by publishing this cartoon. All they have done is they have fostered the feeling of anger, hate towards Muslims.”

The fact that the intended subject was the Taliban–a militant Islamist-fundamentalist group that has taken control of Afghanistan–doesn’t change the effect of the cartoon, says Sheikh. “Because who are Taliban at the end of it?” he says. “They are Muslims, albeit non-practicing. But they are Muslims, and it is the Muslim community as a whole who will be targeted at some other point.”

Possible hate crime investigation

At least two people have confirmed with CHMA that they have reported the publication to the RCMP, and were told it was being investigated as a possible hate crime. But New Brunswick RCMP spokesperson Hans Ouellette will not confirm an investigation. In an email, Ouellette told CHMA the force won’t say an investigation is taking place unless there’s an operational need to do so, or if charges have been laid.

Oulette added, “there is no place for racism or discrimination in our communities.” He also said, “the RCMP promotes acceptance, respect and appreciation of diverse experiences.”

‘I want them to be held accountable’

Saly Davis says she is less interested in what L’Acadie Nouvelle does in the wake of publishing the cartoon than she is in how the rest of New Brunswick responds to it.

“I want them to be held accountable by the public,” says Davis. “People are coming forward, filing hate crime charges against l’Acadie Nouvelle. Because such a publication was not done by one person. A group made the decision to publish this, a group thought it was funny to put other people’s lives and other people’s children’s lives in danger.”

Davis says people can help the situation by reaching out to Muslim and racialized community members to offer support.“Contact people who are members of your local mosque,” says Davis. “See if they feel safe, ask them if their children are safe. Ask them if they want extra pairs of eyes on them or on their children.”

Abid Sheikh says that the removal of the online cartoon almost immediately by l’Acadie Nouvelle was a positive sign. “My hat’s off to them for making the immediate right decision,” says Sheikh. “I hope that this will be a lesson learned by them.”