Police in Nova Scotia are investigating a complaint about a social media post showing a man wearing a swastika while trick-or-treating on Halloween. RCMP say the man in the online photograph appears to be wearing a Nazi uniform. In a statement, a police spokesperson said the man was photographed on a street in Cole Harbour, N.S., about 10 kilometres east of downtown Halifax. Local resident Paige Hoveling says she was trick-or-treating with her family in Cole Harbour when she saw a man in a dark-coloured uniform with a swastika emblazoned on a red arm band. She says Cole Harbour is a diverse, inclusive community, and she was shocked and initially confused to see someone there wearing a Nazi uniform. Hoveling says she hopes someone has told the man that swastikas are hate symbols and people wearing them killed millions of Jews and other marginalized people during the Second World War. “I hope that if someone recognizes this person, they reach out to him and have that conversation with him, and he can understand that it wasn’t just a funny costume or being edgy,” Hoveling said in an interview Tuesday. “It was something that could have caused stress and harm to his community, and there are consequences for doing those things.” The Canadian Press viewed a photo she captured of the man. His outfit includes 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. 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,” particularly amid rising antisemitism across the globe. RCMP are asking people in Nova Scotia 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,” said Cpl. Mandy Edwards said in an email. “Speaking up helps protect the well-being of everyone in the community.” In Ottawa, Parliament passed the Combatting Hate Act earlier this year, creating new Criminal Code offences for hate-motivated intimidation of identifiable groups, including through the intentional display of certain Nazi symbols. 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. 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. 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 The Canadian Press
