Man Arrested Following Antisemitic Assault in Montreal Park

Canadian Jewish leaders have leveled criticism at law enforcement for the response to an attack against a Jewish man on Friday which resulted in the arrest of a 24-year-old suspect on Monday.

The Jewish Community Council of Montreal released a statement by its executive director, Rabbi Saul Emanuel, about the apparent hate crime in a Montreal park.

“The arrest of the man who brutally attacked a Jewish father in front of his children last Friday afternoon is welcome, but it is far from enough. The disgraceful reality is that it took SPVM [the Montreal Police Service] nearly an hour to respond to the initial call for help,” Emanuel stated. “An hour — after a violent hate crime committed in broad daylight against a man whose only ‘offense’ was being visibly Jewish. That delay is not a minor lapse. It is a dereliction of duty.”

Emanuel called this delay “a signal, intentional or not, that when Jews are targeted, urgency is optional.” He asked “if this attack had been against another community, would police have taken nearly sixty minutes to arrive? The question answers itself, and the truth is as infuriating as it is dangerous.”

The SPVM said it had “spared no effort to locate the suspect” and that it continued an investigation “to shed full light on the circumstances of this criminal act.” The SPVM thanked citizens “who contributed to this outcome by sending us information that facilitated the suspect’s location.”

B’nai Brith Canada also released a statement about the arrest in which it further critiqued law enforcement’s response to the crime.

“During the assault, which occurred in the Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension area, the suspect is alleged to have beaten a visibly Jewish man in front of his children, tossing the victim’s kippah into a nearby fountain,” the organization noted. “The Montreal police did not mention the victim’s Jewish identity in its announcement of Monday’s arrest, nor the fact that his kippah was thrown into a fountain.”

Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy, said that “omitting such critical facts does a disservice to the public and gives the impression that the authorities are tone-deaf to the crisis Jews in Montreal are facing on a daily basis. With the situation continuing to devolve, Jewish Canadians need leaders to pay more than mere lip service to antisemitism. We need all levels of government to take clear and unequivocal positions on combating this scourge of hate.”

Emanuel emphasized the broad impact of the crime.

“This was not just an assault. It was a public act of antisemitic humiliation designed to terrorize an entire community. Every minute the attacker remained at large was another minute in which he could have harmed someone else,” Emanuel said. “Montreal police failed to treat this for what it was: a violent hate crime that demanded an immediate, overwhelming response. Now the justice system has one job: to ensure this man pays the maximum legal price for his actions. No plea bargains. No soft sentencing. No excuses about ‘first offenses’ or ‘mitigating circumstances.’ He should have the book thrown at him with both hands. Anything less will embolden every coward who thinks they can lay hands on a Jew in this city without consequence.”

Emanuel warned that “our community will not forget this failure. We will not accept it. And we will not stop demanding answers until Montreal police explain why a father could be beaten in front of his children, have his kippah ripped from his head and thrown into a fountain, and still wait nearly an hour for the protection he is owed as a citizen of this city.”

Canada has experienced a steep surge in antisemitic hate crimes following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.