Fady Dagher

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Marvin Rotrand, formerly head of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, and now interim director of the new United Against Hate organization, is calling for clarity from the SPVM on hate crimes committed against the Montreal Jewish community.

Rotrand, whose new organization’s goal is to “promote dialogue and understanding within our diverse population to strengthen anti-hate efforts,” wrote to Montreal police chief Fady Dagher, pointing out that there has been a major increase in hate crime incidents in Canada in general, especially against Jewish communities since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

“Montreal was not spared from the wave of hatred targeting Jews,” Rotrand wrote. “Jewish schools were shot at and arson attempts were perpetrated against Jewish community buildings. Hateful gatherings openly incited violence against the Jewish community, Jewish students were attacked at Concordia University and calls for boycotts of businesses were launched simply because their owners are Jewish.”

Rotrand wrote that even after all of these incidents and the concerns expressed by the Jewish community, “there have been very few arrests.

“The lack of application of our laws gives the feeling that the authorities have not allocated the necessary resources to solve the major crimes we have witnessed in our city.”

Rotrand asked Dagher:

• “How many hate crimes and incidents have been recorded by the SPVM since Oct. 7, 2023? Of these, how many specifically targeted the Jewish community?”

• “With regard to incidents occurring since Oct. 7, 2023, when shots were fired at Jewish schools, and there were arson attempts against Jewish community buildings and acts of vandalism, are these incidents being investigated as probable hate crimes?”

• “What is the role of the SPVM’s Hate Crimes unit in these investigations? Does the unit lead the investigations? If not, what is its role?

• “On Nov. 24, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said that his department’s hate crimes unit had increased from a team from six people to 32. He said that since Oct. 7, the expanded unit made 22 arrests and laid 58 charges. What is the current number of police officers assigned to the hate crimes unit of the SPVM?

• Are there plans to increase the unit’s capacity to deal with the current epidemic of antisemitic incidents?

Rotrand wrote Dagher that the Montreal Jewish community “appreciates the statements you have made in recent months that anti-Semitism is unacceptable, and the increased visibility near Jewish institutions last October and November.

“However, the fact that there have been no arrests for these major crimes fuels a strong feeling that the SPVM must allocate many more resources so that investigations result in arrests and indictments of criminals.”

Contacted by The Suburban, the SPVM’s media representative said Dagher will respond to Rotrand in due course. They also provided the most recent statistics regarding hate crimes and incidents against members of the Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities from Oct. 7 to Feb. 24 — 42 hate crimes against Jewish individuals, 19 against Arab-Muslims; 32 hate crimes against Jewish properties, seven against Arab-Muslim properties; 56 antisemitic hate incidents, and 17 anti-Arab-Muslim incidents, for a total of 173 incidents — 130 against the Jewish community and 43 against the Arab-Muslim community.

The SPVM added that “there is no offence identified as a ‘hate crime’ in the Criminal Code.

“The hateful character is in fact a constitutive and aggravating factor of a given criminal act, a factor which must be nuanced depending on the context. For example, if a person is the victim of an assault motivated by hatred towards their religion, the suspect will be charged with assault and the hateful nature will be taken into consideration when determining the sentence, if convicted.”

The police added that although the SPVM’s hate crimes unit (MICH) processes them, hate incidents “do not lead to arrests or charges, because they are not criminal offences. The MICH takes care of this in order to prevent these incidents from potentially becoming hate crimes.” n