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No charge has been laid in case that included vandalism of headstones at a Jewish cemetery and a Jewish museum
Police arrest Toronto man for ‘hate-motivated mischief incidents’ costing $140,000
Toronto police have arrested a man accused of harassing Jewish and non-Jewish groups with “hate-motivated mischief” over the last two years.
An 18-year-old man has been charged with mischief exceeding $5,000.
The man allegedly left insulting comments and other material at two locations, the Anti-Defamation League of Greater Toronto and Emmanuel Fellowship Ministries.
A photograph of the Maimonides mausoleum in Toronto
The mischief amounted to over $50,000, the Toronto police service said.
A cemetery near Toronto was vandalized last week in what community leaders said was a hate crime.
Ten headstones at the Maimonides synagogue cemetery in east Toronto were vandalized, and about a dozen more were damaged after being stolen. Police are trying to find the perpetrators.
An 18-year-old man was charged with mischief over $5,000 at the scene of the attack on Monday.
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This was followed by the second vandalism incident on Thursday at the Conservative Jewish Museum in Toronto.
A display of war memorabilia stolen from the museum was found, police said, leading them to arrest 18-year-old David Sabry of Toronto on Friday.
He was arrested again on Sunday after what police described as “a wide-scale investigation” into hate crimes against Jewish community institutions in Ontario.
The Toronto Jewish community was shocked by the vandalism attacks, but noted that groups of mostly Muslim youth who congregate in the area around the museum would not have been targeted.
There is “a really radical and extreme minority of society” who are motivated by hate, Stéphane Godin, Toronto’s longtime top rabbi and of the city’s Jewish community, told the Guardian last week.