Montreal police have arrested a suspect, 27, in connection with Friday’s assault on a Jewish father in front of his two children in the borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, police announced on Monday afternoon.
Law enforcement “spared no effort to locate the suspect and is continuing its investigation to shed full light on the circumstances of this criminal act,” the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal said in a French statement.
The statement thanked “citizens who contributed to this outcome by providing us with information that helped locate the suspect.”
The incident happened around 2:20 p.m. on Friday when the victim arrived at Dickie-Moore Park with his young children, according to police. The suspect, who was in the park’s splash-pad area, allegedly approached the victim and sprayed him with the contents of his water bottle.
According to police, the victim tried to speak with the suspect, who then proceeded to push him to the ground, punched him several times in the face and kneed him before fleeing the scene on foot around 2:26 p.m.
A video circulating online showed a 28-second portion of the attack. It starts with the victim, 32, lying on the ground as the assailant strikes him several times with his fists. The attacker then gets up and walks away, grabbing several of what are apparently his belongings, after which he tosses the victim’s kippah into a shallow fountain.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with the victim on Monday night, his office said. Joining the call was Yair Szlak, head of the Montreal Jewish Federation.
“We saw the horrific attack and I want to send you and your family, your beautiful children, strength and comfort,” stated Herzog, according to a readout provided by his office.
“May you have a swift recovery in body and soul from this terrible ordeal. We are with you, and we are here for you. The whole Jewish people stands with you,” he said.
The president also invited the victim and his family to visit him in Jerusalem.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called the footage of the attack “shocking and stomach-turning” in a statement issued after Shabbat in Israel.
“These are images reminiscent of dark periods of Jewish persecution. This is appalling,” Jerusalem’s top diplomat wrote on X. “The Canadian government must do more to fight antisemitism!”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney subsequently condemned the assault as an “appalling act of violence.”
“Everyone in Canada has an inalienable right to live in safety,” Carney tweeted. “My thoughts are with the victim and his family as they recover, and my support is with law enforcement as they work to bring the perpetrator to justice.”
In 2024, Canadian authorities opened an investigation after Beth Tikvah, an Orthodox synagogue in Montreal, as well as a community center in the city’s suburbs, were targeted with firebombs, the second such attack on the congregation since the Hamas-led terrorist massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
