{"id":956938,"date":"2026-11-03T16:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T16:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/956938\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T16:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T16:16:12","slug":"man-wearing-nazi-uniform-while-kids-went-trick-or-treating-was-disturbing-woman-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/956938\/","title":{"rendered":"Man wearing Nazi uniform while kids went trick-or-treating was &#8216;disturbing,&#8217; woman says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">WARNING:  This story includes a picture of a swastika.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">A Halifax-area woman says she was disturbed to see a man wearing a full Nazi uniform while trick-or-treating with children on Halloween.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Cole Harbour, N.S., resident Paige Hoveling told CBC Radio&#8217;s Information Morning Nova Scotia she was out with a group of children and adults when her son spotted the man.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;My 10-year-old said, &#8216;Hey, mom, there&#8217;s someone dressed up as a German general,'&#8221; Hoveling said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;My husband and I and the adults that we were with looked up and we went, &#8216;No buddy, that&#8217;s a Nazi. And that&#8217;s not OK.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">She said the man was pushing a stroller and appeared to be accompanying children who were trick-or-treating. He looked like he was wearing an eyepatch and a Nazi uniform, including a swastika armband, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;If you think of a Nazi in any Hollywood movie you&#8217;ve seen, that&#8217;s what it looked like,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">CBC News spoke with two other residents, who didn&#8217;t want to be interviewed, but who saw the man on Halloween and confirmed the photo was real.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A man in an Nazi uniform is seen from behind.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1793722572_823_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7777777777777777\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption-oOSXz\">A witness said the man was wearing a full Nazi uniform and pushing a stroller on Halloween as kids went trick-or-treating on the residential street in Cole Harbour, N.S. (Paige Hoveling)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Hoveling said her group decided to stay away from the man. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;It is disturbing,&#8221; she said.  &#8220;I don&#8217;t know if this guy thought it was a joke or if he actually believes in this, but either way, it&#8217;s really disturbing to see symbols of hate like that in our community. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;And we&#8217;re such a small, tight-knit community here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">She said she talked to her son afterward and explained to him why the costume was not acceptable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Hoveling said she searched online to try to determine if police should be called. But she found the legislation vague and wasn&#8217;t sure if she should call the police non-emergency number.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">The federal government\u2019s Bill C-9, also called the <a class=\"link-_o8iA html-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/department-justice\/news\/2026\/06\/canadas-stronger-hate-crime-protections-become-law.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Combatting Hate Act<\/a>, came into effect in July and makes it a crime to promote hatred against identifiable groups in public using certain terrorism-related or hate symbols.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">The law specifically targets two Nazi symbols \u2014 the swastika, also called the hakenkreuz, and the SS lightning bolts \u2014 and symbols associated with the federal government\u2019s <a class=\"link-_o8iA html-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.publicsafety.gc.ca\/cnt\/ntnl-scrt\/cntr-trrrsm\/lstd-ntts\/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">list of terrorist entities<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Wayne MacKay, professor emeritus of law at Dalhousie University&#8217;s Schulich School of Law, told CBC News <a class=\"link-_o8iA html-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.parl.ca\/documentviewer\/en\/45-1\/bill\/C-9\/royal-assent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the legal definition of promoting hatred<\/a> is narrow. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;They make a point of saying it has to be vilification and detestation,&#8221; MacKay said. &#8220;Hurt feelings and offences are not enough. And that is in order to protect free speech.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">&#8220;From a law point of view, it&#8217;s not likely to produce either civil or criminal consequences for the parties involved.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">In an email to CBC News, the RCMP said it received a complaint about the costume on Nov. 2. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">It said determining whether a Criminal Code offence occurred would require an investigation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Investigators would need to collect evidence of the &#8220;willful promotion of hatred and reach the threshold of reasonable and probable grounds.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-956938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}