MONTREAL — A synagogue in a Montreal suburb was focused in what police suspect was an arson assault early Wednesday, the second time the constructing on this Canadian metropolis was hit by an incendiary system in little greater than a 12 months.
Police stated a close-by Jewish workplace constructing was apparently additionally focused Wednesday, although it was unclear if the 2 assaults have been linked.
Montreal police obtained a 911 name shortly earlier than 3 a.m. a few hearth on the Congregation Beth Tikvah on the island suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, police spokesperson Véronique Dubuc stated.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze and located an incendiary system on the scene, she stated. A window of the synagogue was smashed and a door was broken.
“Witnesses instructed us that they noticed one suspect that was leaving quickly shortly after the fireplace began,” she stated, including that the constructing was broken by smoke however the general penalties of the fireplace have been minor.
No accidents have been reported and there have been no arrests within the case, Dubuc stated, including that police haven’t but decided whether or not the fireplace was a hate crime.
A number of hours later, officers on the scene of the fireplace observed a equally smashed window and a broken glass door at a close-by constructing belonging to the West Island workplace of the Federation CJA, a constructing frequented by town’s Jewish group.
Dubuc stated no incendiary system was discovered on the second location. Police are investigating a attainable hyperlink between the 2 incidents, she stated.
The identical synagogue and the CJA constructing have been targeted by arson in November 2023, inflicting minor injury to the synagogue’s entrance door and the again door of the CJA workplace. Nobody was injured in these assaults and police haven’t made arrests in that case.
Jewish teams and politicians condemned the focusing on of the Jewish establishments on Wednesday.
“This vile antisemitic assault in opposition to Montreal’s Jewish group is cowardly and legal,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated on X.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog denounced the attack and referred to as “on the Canadian authorities to behave decisively, and present that such hatred won’t be tolerated.”
