Swastika Drawn On Head Of Alzheimers Patient At Toronto Care Facility

TORONTO (VINnews) — In a brutal display of abuse towards an elderly man suffering from Alzheimers in the Glendale Care Center in Toronto, a swastika was drawn on his head by one of his attendants.

When Shane Morrow went to visit his uncle Larry at Glendale Care Centre in Toronto’s Swansea neighbourhood this week, he noticed something strange on his head.

Shane said he and his mother initially thought his uncle had some sort of accident and that the black marks they were seeing were stitches. However, upon closer look, he realized that matters were much worse.

Someone had drawn a swastika and a happy face on his uncle’s head in black marker.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Shane said.

Shane said he questioned the staff member on duty who allegedly told him that this was one of two swastikas that were drawn on the 65-year-old’s body by “a younger man.” She then attempted to scrape off the swastika with her fingernail, Shane said.

He said he was told that his uncle initially had a swastika drawn on his back, which was able to be washed off, but the one on his head was not.

Shane said he was told by the staff member that the perpetrator of the incident had been arrested and the situation is under control. However Toronto police media relations officer Const. Caroline de Kloet said there was no report filed for the address in question.

Larry, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes, has been a resident at Glendale (located at 46 The Queensway) for approximately two years and is on a waiting list to enter a retirement home.

While the Morrows are not Jewish, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) in Toronto has reached out to them, offering their support following the incident.

The CIJA has also released a statement saying they are “horrified by reports that an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer’s was brutally abused at a Toronto care facility.”

The statement continues: “That someone would commit such a vicious assault on a human being in our society is almost beyond belief.”