Toronto Police Services (TPS) hate crimes unit is leading an investigation after a Jewish-owned business was plastered, for a second time, with anti-Israel stickers on its glass storefront in the city’s west end.
TPS spokesperson Stephanie Sayer confirmed via email that both occurrences are “active investigations being led by the Hate Crime Unit,” she wrote, adding that officers are seeking out video evidence for the investigation.
Aviva Allen, the owner of Healthy Moms Market, on Dundas Street West, near Keele Street, discovered the stickers while opening the shop the morning of March 31.
The first such sticker vandalism incident took place at the shop in mid-January.
Unlike in January, this time Allen found a number of stickers on her storefront, and left them intact when she called police.
“The first time [in January], I ripped the sticker off because I was so upset by it, but this time I left it up so maybe they [police] could get some [fingerprints] on it. When they came by, and I was outside with the police officer, I noticed two more stickers on the window.”
“I gave them all the details. They sent someone who took pictures and was able to remove the stickers and put them in plastic, and they’re taking them away to be analyzed,” she said in an interview.
One of the stickers featured a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the word ‘Cunt” scrawled on the photo, while another read ‘End the Israeli occupation of Palestine.’
Allen reviewed security video footage that she’s shared with TPS, and says the incident took place a little before 5:30 on Sunday evening, March 30, not long after she locked up and left the store.
From the video, she says it’s clear the sticker suspect was male, and was wearing a winter jacket with a hood that obscured his face.
It was still daylight, on a drizzly Sunday, when the suspect affixed the stickers to her storefront, and Allen notes that the street, a retail thoroughfare in the gentrifying Junction neighbourhood, was not empty.
“There were other people walking by. It wasn’t raining at the time, it was busy on the street at the time… (he) didn’t seem to care,” she said.
In January, it was just one sticker, she notes, though it looked similar to one of those recently plastered on her glass storefront.
“The first one was the Israeli flag with blood on it… this one was a white sticker with a hand-drawn Palestinian flag on it and same messaging,” she said.
“It had a hand-drawn Jewish star and they went over some of the letters in black because I think it had faded. It’s like it was cut off from something—there’s a brown outline.” Still, the sticker carries, she says, “the exact same font and spacing like the other one, so I feel like maybe it was stamped onto this, and. then they drew in the rest. It’s a really weird sticker.”
In that first incident, a security video image showed a male suspect at the shop door, whose face is more visible. Toronto police canvassed nearby businesses to gather additional security video footage for the investigation, she says, but Allen hasn’t heard any updates on the search for that first suspect.
“The guy from the first one, we can clearly see who he is… and they were able to catch him on some other cameras in the neighbourhood, but they still don’t have anything to report to me, and that’s been two-and-a-half months now,” she said.
“On the surface it feels like they’re taking this seriously,” she said. “The officers who were here genuinely were very concerned and sympathetic. But it feels like there’s only so much they can do.”
Denials of antisemitism add to frustrations
Allen’s frustrated that while police are able to consider the incidents as possible hate-motivated occurrences, not everyone in the area—or online, since she posted on the store’s social media accounts —seems to agree.
Skeptics and critics have questioned whether this was hateful, she says.
“They don’t see it as being a hate crime. I mean, clearly the police think it’s a hate crime or they wouldn’t have their hate crimes unit investigating it.”
Allen says the store’s social media accounts have largely not focused on Israel, although she previously wrote an opinion piece for The CJN about facing antisemitism on Facebook in 2021, soon after she opened the retail outlet—which sells organic products and children’s items such as lunchboxes and water bottles.
“I haven’t posted anything about Israel since right after Oct. 7, with the exception of a few videos or ‘stories’ [brief posts or shares] about antisemitism… [and] something about the Bibas babies,” she says.
While she’s received messages of support from within the Jewish community, along with other friends of her eco-friendly, family-focused business, Allen says her post about the incident has also drawn victim-blaming sentiments online, compounding her frustrations.
“I didn’t post about it the first time on my social page… I posted in other venues and other people had posted it in some places [online]… and there were some negative responses, too,” she said.
Some people challenged why she was targeted, as if “I must have done something to deserve that, kind of a vibe,” she said.
Disappointed, she’s even responded to at least one of the unsupportive responses to the store’s Instagram post.
“We did have a lot of supportive messages after I posted, which is nice,” said Allen.
“But then you’re still getting those people, not necessarily the ones who put the stickers there, but clearly they share the same sentiments and the fact that they have enough chutzpah to go into this [Facebook or Instagram] thread to voice their opinions on this matter, it’s really disgusting… questioning whether or not it’s antisemitism, questioning if it’s even hate,” including on neighbourhood Facebook groups, where some of the skeptical comments came from her own posts about what happened to her shop in the area.
“Like, what the hell? They think it’s perfectly normal to do something like that, because Israel.”
One of the responses on the store’s Instagram post read: “Hate is a strong word. Is it hate? Or is it just triggering hate in you? I agree it’s vandalism but the world knows civilians are being killed there. It’s a fact.” (Others, not Allen, have rebutted those comments on the post.)
“But I know the majority of my customers don’t share that view and the majority of people in Toronto or Canada for that matter,” Allen said.
Jewish advocates are speaking out about vandalism against Jewish businesses, particularly in the wake of news last week that a Jewish-owned café, Goldstruck Coffee, had its glass door at a downtown location shattered twice in one week.
Richard Robertson, the director of research and advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada, says it’s a clear case of discrimination that merits a strong response.
“This is disgusting. To target a Jewish business owner for their Zionist beliefs is antisemitism,” he said. “This is unacceptable and this should not be occurring on Canadian streets.
“It’s a relief to hear that the police are investigating this as a hate crime because that’s exactly what it is, and it’s about time that our authorities, and our leaders start to properly address the rising levels of antisemitism in the numerous assaults on Jewish businesses, which have been occurring unabated on our streets in Toronto.”
Robertson says it’s up to not only Jewish Canadians, but to all Canadians, to take a stand.
“As a community, not just the Jewish community, but our entire society must denounce this type of unacceptable criminal activity. We must all unite and work together to continue to uphold Canadian values,” he said.
“It’s an affront to Canadian values to allow this type of disgusting, deplorable conduct to occur on our streets, and we must also support businesses like this that are being unduly and unfairly persecuted because of the beliefs of their owners and because of their religious faith.”
Alexa Gilmour, who represents the shop’s district in the Ontario legislature as its newly elected Member of Provincial Parliament, called out the sticker vandalism in an online post.
“I am disturbed by the recent antisemitic vandalism at Healthy Moms Market in Parkdale–High Park. Targeting a business in this way is wrong, and I have reached out to the owner to offer my support. Antisemitism has no place in our city,” wrote Gilmour, an MPP for the New Democratic Party, in an Instagram post April 2.
She cited TPS statistics showing that “hate crimes targeting the Jewish community more than tripled in 2023, with Jewish people being the most frequently targeted group,” accounting for 37 percent of all hate-related incidents in the city, according to 2023 the TPS annual report.
“We must build a Toronto where every community feels safe, respected, and valued,” wrote Gilmour, who closed comments on the Instagram post, including a note that while she believes in dialogue, “welcome criticism,” and debate, she also takes “responsibility to ensure that my platforms do not become spaces where members of our community feel unsafe or targeted.”
“This is not about avoiding accountability—it’s about upholding a standard of respectful discourse and recognizing that social media comments are not the best venues for some conversations,” wrote the MPP for the area.
Aviva Allen also released a video on Healthy Moms Market’s social media channels April 3, responding to the unsupportive comments she’s received, including, she says, from people in the Junction area of the city.
“Vandalism in Canada is a crime,” Allen said at the end of the video. “When you target a Jewish-owned business with hateful messages about the only Jewish country in the world, that is considered a hate crime.”
Updated April 3, 2025
