TORONTO — York Regional Police are investigating the latest incident of anti-Semitic graffiti in Thornhill after a UJA Federation of Greater Toronto lawn sign was defaced with a swastika last week.
Const. Laura Nicolle said police were called to the southwest corner of Bathurst and Centre streets around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 27 to investigate.
She said the caller reported that “an unknown suspect had drawn some anti-Semitic graffiti in the area on a sign. The sign was removed by maintenance and they advised that there is possible video surveillance. So I would say that officers would be looking into that aspect of it.”
Nicolle added that the hate crimes unit was also notified, but at this point, there is no suspect.
“The fact that this reprehensible graffiti targeted a UJA Federation sign in the heart of one of the world’s fastest-growing Jewish communities is especially disturbing. We are confident that York Regional Police will, as always, do their utmost to apprehend the perpetrators of this crime and charge them appropriately,” said UJA Federation’s incoming CEO, Morris Zbar.
“The swastika is a symbol of outright hatred toward Jews and other religious and ethnic groups. It evokes one of the darkest moments in human history in which genocidal intent led to the cold-blooded murder of over six million innocent Jews and countless millions of others,” said Berl Nadler, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ GTA co-chair.
“Its appearance on our streets is an affront to all Canadians and is especially painful for thousands of Holocaust survivors who live in the GTA.”
In July, anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on a bus shelter in Thornhill at Atkinson Avenue and Spring Gate Boulevard, near Bathurst. It was vandalized with a spray-painted message that said “F— Israel,” as well as swastikas.
Three days earlier, anti-Arab messages were spray painted on the sidewalk in front of a Thornhill Woods mosque. The graffiti, which said “Arabs go home” and “F— Gaza,” was spray-painted in front of the Islamic Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat (ISIAJ)’s Jaffari Centre mosque at 9000 Bathurst St., south of Rutherford Road, while worshippers attended Ramadan services.
Nicolle said there are still no developments in those cases, but she said there was an arrest made last month related to other hate-motivated crimes.
Yaeer Katz, a 29-year-old Vaughan man was charged with two counts of criminal harassment and one count of mischief in relation to several hate crime incidents.
Katz was charged for anti-Semitic graffiti that was found at a coffee shop, for uttering religious slurs against a family, as well as four other incidents that took place between December 2013 and June 2014.
Nicolle said Katz has not been connected to the incidents at the Jaffari Centre mosque or the Thornhill bus shelter.
“He was charged with some incidents, but it’s hard in some cases to connect them and investigators will be following up on all possibilities to see if any of them could potentially be connected. Without any suspect information it would be a challenge. We’re certainly looking for anyone with information to contact us,” Nicolle said.
Howard English, CIJA’s senior vice-president said that his group is “concerned about multiple swastika graffiti incidents. We’re concerned about what appears to be an increase in expressions of anti-Semitism in the GTA, which mirror an increase in anti-Semitic activity around the world.”