Former hate crimes investigator compares vaccine policy to Holocaust

A constable with the Calgary Police Services (CPS), who has worked in hate crimes, posted a video on social media comparing the Holocaust to the CPS vaccine policy.

Const. Brian Denison recorded the 10-minute video on Sept. 29, while sitting in his cruiser in uniform.

Denison voices his opposition to the vaccine policy, saying he is stuck between getting “the miracle jab” or losing his job. He goes even further, saying the policy is a step towards a Nazi regime.

“Those that are vaccinated, a lot of them, look down on us that are unvaccinated and that’s starting the two-tier system,” Denison said.

“It’s very reminiscent of, many years ago, during the World War that Hitler was perpetrating against the Jews. He slowly but surely took away rights, privileges, all that stuff that people find worthwhile in life he stripped away from them. And then he was able to demonize them enough that all the German people were onboard to exterminate them because they were nothing.”

Holocaust survivor Abe Silverman called this comparison offensive and was deeply disappointing to hear such rhetoric coming from a uniformed officer.

“The Holocaust, as we know, was the great tragedy in human history, perpetrated by evil that is hard to comprehend, and to bring that into a conversation about involves some grievance is just awfully offensive,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate that someone like this policeman, who is obviously intelligent and well-spoken, has bought into this narrative. It’s a harmful narrative that does us all a great injustice.”

Silverman knows what persecution is. His parents’ first taste of it was shortly after the Nazis banned Jewish people from getting married.

“My mother and father got married in 1940 after the laws were passed and the rabbi and his five-year-old son were both shot on the doorstep as they were leaving after performing the ceremony. and the Romanian Nazis went in and said that’s what happens if you break laws.”

Silverman was born in a Jewish ghetto located in Jasi, Romania, where 35,000 Jewish people were rounded up and squeezed into an area that held five thousand people.

“I was born in a tomb house with a dirt floor with 15 people who recognized that this newborn was the future of the Jewish people and did without food and died of hunger and typhus and did everything to keep me alive. I’ll be grateful to those people for the rest of my life,” he said.

In the video, Denison paints himself as a victim of persecution.

“That is the ultimate in bullying,” Denison said in the video.

Hate crimes researcher Irfan Chaudry says this video could further damage the relationship between minority groups and police.

“That really kind of highlights layers of privilege some people in our society occupy and feel that once it’s encroaching on how they view the world, now it’s a form of oppression,” he said.

“That, I think, is where I think that layers of trust likely have been eroded.”

He adds police should ensure officers working in hate crimes have the right emotional intelligence for that job.

In an email statement to CityNews, Calgary police say they share the Jewish community’s disappointment, and their professional standards unit is investigating.

They say the member is currently relieved from duty with pay for failing to adhere to the COVID-19 vaccination policy, which does allow for officers to be unvaccinated if they enroll in the rapid testing program. CPS is now pursuing relief from duty without pay.