CONTENT WARNING: This news story contains the messages discussed in court in explicit detail.
An Ontario man pleaded guilty on Feb. 5 to sending indecent messages to an Ottawa physician and school board trustee.
Oz Wheeler of Eganville, 130 kms west of Ottawa, left vulgar and antisemitic messages on the clinic voicemail of Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, a family physician and trustee with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in June 2023.
The crown prosecutor read three of the messages that Wheeler left on her medical office’s phone system in court, messages Kaplan-Myrth transcribed in her victim impact statement: “Hi Nili. This is Mr. Hitler. And I would like you to suck my balls” one began, referencing cancer. In a second message, he purported to be a “a little Jewish girl and I’m currently being molested by a goyim.” A third was full of references to “goyim” and “the Jewish story” while referring to Kaplan-Myrth repeatedly as a “Jew piece of shit.”
A clearly shaken Kaplan-Myrth told The CJN the day after the court hearing where her statement was read, that she believes the defendant may have also been responsible for other calls she received. When she first heard the messages read out in court, “hearing it like that, I had to catch my breath. I was really taken aback,” she said, explaining that calls from numbers that are not recognized are sent automatically to voicemail.
“My staff gets it, tells me, and we transcribe it and report to police, but hearing it read like that was traumatic,” she said, noting she did not know the messages would be read aloud in the courtroom.
Kaplan-Myrth is no stranger to controversy, having been targeted previously with threatening messaging after her efforts to encourage masking during the pandemic, and being sanctioned at her own school board following heated exchanges when she sought more robust action on antisemitism in Ottawa schools.
In her impact statement she noted that she does not know if Wheeler was responsible for other forms of harassment she has been subjected to, including “vile emails that I have received, threatening to throw me and my children and husband into gas chambers, and to turn us into lamp shades.”
“As I said to the judge, I am worried that he may try to seek some sort of retribution, or other people who support his views may try to come after me.” She hopes one outcome will be a peace bond so that he’s not allowed to have any contact with her or come anywhere near her, her family, or workplace.
“I always have to have my office locked between patients, and we must all be much more hyper-vigilant going to work, especially knowing that this individual is just one of many out there. I’m fearful walking to work… I never imagined someone, who I’ve never met, and others out in the open, these are real people out there sending these things to me.”
Under Section 372 of Canada’s Criminal Code, an “indecent communication” intended to “alarm or annoy” is an offense punishable byimprisonment of up to two years.
Wheeler was ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment, and a sentencing date has not yet been set. “I doubt he will be incarcerated,” Kaplan-Myrth said, noting there is discussion of a deradicalization program, “but I don’t know if he’s participating because he’s required to or elected to… I have seen people with mental illness who don’t do these types of things. It’s an antisemitic act whether it’s caused by someone with a sound mind or not.”
The CJN could not reach the crown prosecutor’s office before press time.
The Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s community relations and antisemitism specialist David Sachs told The CJN the crown prosecutor in Ottawa is very sensitive to such incidents and expressions of hate. “I believe they take it quite seriously and have in fact asked for input to provide community impact statements in other hate cases.”
About the actual messaging and some of the vile language, he said previous messaging was only referred to in abstract terms, but like Kaplan-Myrth, when he heard them read aloud for the first time in the pre-sentencing hearing, “it was unbelievable. The quotes that were read in front of the court captured how disgusting these comments were.”
“We’re seeing more emboldened hatred among the adult community, people being singled out for insult or harassment or hate simply because they are Israeli-Canadian or Jewish.” What’s more, he says it’s not necessarily in environments where militancy or fractious debates are expected, but rather “in neighbourhood associations, the job application process, within the workplace. We hear of Jewish members being really singled out and targeted by individuals… We are aware of how serious the environment is on campus or in school boards but we’re also really seeing a surging level of hatred initiated at random within the community.”
In Ottawa, hate-related crimes and incidents rose by 20 percent in 2023, with Jews as the target in 27 percent of cases despite representing only 1.4 percent of the population, according to the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, in testimony to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
Asked whether anti-Zionism or just old-fashioned Jew hatred is fueling the surge being felt in the community of some 15,000 Jews, Sachs says it’s both.
“There is a meanness and antagonism there, of virulent hatred that is very old-fashioned, that singles out Jews for being Jews and then hits them with the anti-Zionist rhetoric. When people see what is tolerated (by individuals and institutions) it gives them free reign to let out their own inner hatred.”
Kaplan-Myrth said the affair has been very disruptive to her life, but added “family medicine is very grounding and allows me to focus on good people.”
Her practice is not in a particularly Jewish neighbourhood, but she said that she had to leave a neighbourhood Facebook group because of surging antisemitism, something that is not new to many Jews across Canada since Oct. 7, 2023.
It’s not the first time someone has been charged with sending such messages to Kaplan-Myrth; in October 2022, a man was charged after allegedly intimidating her with anti-vaccine messages, and in December 2023 a B.C. man was charged over messages she received in August of that year.
