Police in Toronto, Canada, have arrested a man they said is behind a string of “hate-motivated graffiti” found in the area around York University.
The Toronto Police Service said on Tuesday that Toronto resident Trevor York, 35, has been charged with seven counts of hate-motivated mischief and damage to property under $5,000, and one count of hate-motivated break and enter. He appeared in court on Tuesday, and the investigation is ongoing.
The Toronto Police Service said that between April and June, they responded to “a number of calls” about hate-motivated crimes taking place near the university. Several buildings were spray-painted with writings “targeting race and religious communities.”
The incidents were investigated with the support of Toronto Police Hate Crimes Unit.
In early June, one Jewish student at York University told Toronto’s news outlet CP24 that he found graffiti spray-painted on a garage near campus that contained an anti-Semitic caricature and called on people to “shoot a Jew in the head.” The student and a friend sent an image of the graffiti to B’nai Brith Canada, which informed the university and then reached out to Toronto police to report the incident.
A Jewish graduate student at the university also told CP24 there are constantly messages posted around campus “sending the same message that the Jewish population here is meant to feel less than welcome.”
