A mother in the Halifax region says she was shocked to see a man trick-or-treating on Saturday wearing what appeared to be a Nazi uniform. Paige Hoveling said her community of Cole Harbour, N.S., about 10 kilometres east of Halifax, is diverse and tightly knit. She said she was confused and then alarmed when she saw the man in a dark uniform wearing a red armband emblazoned with a swastika amid happy families on Halloween. “Millions of people died because of people that wore these uniforms,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “I want people to be aware that this is not OK. It’s not OK to spread hate in our community, and it’s not OK to make your neighbours feel unsafe in the place where they live.” Hoveling said her son spotted the man as they were trick-or-treating with friends. The boy thought the man was dressed as a German general, but she and her husband explained he was wearing Nazi regalia. “We just kind of went, ‘Um, no, buddy, that’s a Nazi, and that’s not OK,”’ she said. She snapped a picture of the man so she could alert her neighbours. She and her group discussed whether to approach him. Surrounded by children, they decided to stay away, she said. The Canadian Press viewed her photo of the man. His outfit includes a dark peaked cap and dark pants tucked into laced, black boots. There is a dark leather strap over the man’s right shoulder. A red band with a black swastika encircles his left arm. Hoveling said he was pushing a stroller. The Nazis killed an estimated six million European Jews during the Holocaust, which was the mass murder of Jews and other groups before and during the Second World War. RCMP confirmed Tuesday that they were investigating a complaint about a social media post showing a man wearing a swastika while trick-or-treating on Halloween. A spokesperson encouraged Nova Scotians to report any behaviour that “appears motivated by bias or prejudice.” “The RCMP takes all reports of suspected hate-motivated incidents and hate crimes seriously,” Cpl. Mandy Edwards said in an email. “Speaking up helps protect the well-being of everyone in the community.” Ben Sichel with Independent Jewish Voices in Halifax said it was disturbing that someone thought it was OK to dress as a Nazi for Halloween. He said expressions of hate from far-right groups are becoming more normalized, pointing to recent demonstrations by white nationalists in Canada, including in Halifax and a First Nation in British Columbia. “Nazi symbols are of course deeply antisemitic, but incidents like this are also connected to anti-Muslim bigotry, Residential School denialism and other forms of bigotry, which we experience right here in Nova Scotia,” Sichel said in an email. “All must be loudly condemned.” Andy Fillmore, mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality, said the uniform’s symbols represent “hatred, antisemitism and atrocities.” In an emailed statement, he encouraged the man in the photograph to think about the harm the symbols represent and how his decision to promote them may have affected the people around him. “Halifax is a welcoming and inclusive community, and everyone who calls it home deserves to feel safe, respected and valued,” he said. “We all have a responsibility to stand against hatred and intolerance wherever we encounter it.” Trish Purdy, the Halifax Regional Municipality councillor for the district, said she was appalled. In an email, Purdy said wearing a Nazi uniform as a costume is “morally repugnant.” In April, Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith said it logged 6,800 antisemitic incidents in Canada last year — the highest number recorded since the group began collecting the data in 1982. Earlier this year, the Canadian government passed the Combatting Hate Act, creating new Criminal Code offences for hate-motivated intimidation of identifiable groups, including through the intentional display of certain Nazi symbols. In 2024, a volunteer fire department in North Sydney, N.S., apologized after a group said to be unaffiliated attended a Halloween party at the local firefighters club dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2026. — With files from The Associated Press
