Teen Suspect Arrested for Anti-Semitic Vandalism in Ottawa
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.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
