Prosecutors in Canada on Thursday charged a 71-year-old man with stabbing and severely wounding a Jewish woman at a Loblaws supermarket in Ottawa that houses a well-known kosher section, in an assault that rights groups said was likely antisemitic.
The man, identified by B’nai Brith Canada as Joseph Rooke, was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a dangerous weapon, police said in a statement. The victim and defendant were not known to each before the incident, the police also said. The statement and media reports did not say how the defendant pleaded.
The man entered the store with another person, according to a CBC report on the incident. He allegedly stabbed the victim at the kosher section, according to the National Post, and was arrested in the store. The woman was taken to the hospital in critical but stable condition, the CBC reported.
Rooke’s social media posts “leave little doubt as to the motive behind the attack,” B’nai Brith Canada wrote in a statement. They included passages such as: “Jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery and outright lying,” according to the rights group.
His comments online “are those of a hateful man and a rabid antisemite,” B’nai Brith Canada added.
The organization “for months has warned Canadian leaders of the dangers of allowing hate to foment unchecked on our streets and online platforms. Sadly, our warnings have gone unheeded,” the group said.
“We are living in [a] Canada where strangers stab women while they are shopping for groceries, seemingly targeting them because of their religious beliefs,” the statement read.
Police have confirmed they are “considering the possibility that this was a hate-motivated crime,” the Jewish Federation of Ottawa said in a statement.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said it was “deeply troubled by the violent, unprovoked stabbing” at the store, which “has been the repeated target of anti-Israel protests.”
The victim, “a valued member of the Ottawa Jewish community, should have been safe to go about their day,” said Josh Landau, CIJA’s director of government relations in Ontario.
“We are grateful for the quick action of emergency responders, including the Ottawa Police Service, who quickly arrested and charged the suspect,” he added.
B’nai Brith Canada documented 6,218 antisemitic incidents in the country in 2024, a record high and an increase of 7% over 2023.
