Brantford police investigating billboard showing Justin Trudeau in Nazi uniform

Brantford police are investigating after a billboard showing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a Nazi uniform next to Adolf Hitler was erected in the city's downtown.

The offensive billboard - seen on the side of a trailer pulled by a pickup truck at the intersection of Colborne and Alfred streets - has since been taken down, police said.

It is unclear when the billboard was first erected.

Issues such as this are concerning due to their offensive and divisive nature," said police spokesperson Robin Matthews-Osmond.

The sign depicted Trudeau performing a Nazi salute alongside the message Trudeau 4 Treason."

The salute, typically followed by cries of Sieg Heil" or Heil Hitler," was a compulsory tribute to Hitler within the Nazi Party and, later, all of Germany under the Nazis' rule from 1933 through 1945. According to the Anti-Defamation League, it is the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world."

Hitler was responsible for the Holocaust during the Second World War which saw six million Jewish people murdered.

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com