Teen Suspect Arrested for Anti-Semitic Vandalism in Ottawa
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A teenage boy has been arrested in connection with several anti-Semitic and racist acts of vandalism that occurred in Ottawa.
The arrest was confirmed by Ottawa police chief Charles Bordeleau on Saturday in a local synagogue that had been victimized during a solidarity event and prayer service.
The teen appeared in court on Saturday and was indicted on several charges including uttering threats and mischief to religious buildings, according to reports.
The teen was caught after a Jewish community center in west Ottawa was vandalized on Friday night, the sixth incident of racist graffiti in less than a week.
Two synagogues and a rabbi’s home that was also used as a prayer center were spray painted with swastikas and anti-Semitic messages in the last week, and a mosque and a church with a black pastor also were spray painted with racist graffiti.
Surveillance video from some of the buildings helped to identify the teen.
“It is absolutely never acceptable to have that kind of hate expressed in communities,” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said during the solidarity event.”By doing these things, by defacing people’s property and religious sacred sites really to instill fear in communities, it’s reprehensible.”
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