Cartoon of dead Syrian toddler in controversial French newspaper draws outrage

VANCOUVER – The aunt of a young Syrian boy who drowned last year while crossing the Mediterranean says an inflammatory cartoon showcasing her nephew's lifeless body is "disgusting."

Tima Kurdi took to Twitter to criticize the controversial French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo for its depiction of two-year-old Alan Kurdi.

The cartoon asks in French what would have become of Alan had he grown up and shows two men running after screaming women with their hands outstretched above a caption that says bum grabbers in Germany.

The drawing is a reference to a series of sex attacks allegedly committed by a group of newly arrived migrants in Cologne, Germany, on New Years Eve.

The cartoon comes a year after gunmen stormed Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris and killed 12 people over the newspaper's incendiary depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Long-time British Columbian political cartoonist Adrian Raeside says he believes the magazine's use of the boy's image goes too far and denigrates the work of editorial cartoonists.