Edward Prutschi, a judge at the Ontario Court of Justice, said on July 28 that he sentenced Waisudin Akbari, an Ontario man who grew up in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to 60 days of house arrest and three subsequent years of probation for making bomb threats against synagogues.
The judge stated that Akbari made “dehumanizing and conspiratorial opinions about the State of Israel, Israelis and Jewish people more generally,” including claiming that Jews control world events and benefit directly from car-loan interest payments, to a salesman at a car dealership on March 4, 2024.
“He stated that Israel sought to enslave and poison the world, and he equated Israelis and Jews to roaches, who should be exterminated or a cancer that needed to be eliminated,” the judge wrote.
Akbari told the salesman, “Before I go, I want you to remember my name and remember my face, because the next time you see it, I’ll be on the news,” the judge added. “I know when I’m going to die, because I’m going to plant a bomb in every synagogue in Toronto and blow them up to kill as many Jews as possible.”
When the salesman asked if Akbari was serious, the latter said, “Yes, I’m serious. I’ll make sure those attacks are filmed and posted online so the world can see what I’ve done,” the judge wrote.
Still, Prutschi sentenced Akbari to house arrest—well below the four to six months in jail, followed by three years of probation and “ancillary orders, including DNA registration and an extended weapons prohibition,” sought by prosecutors—due to what he said were mitigating circumstances.
Akbari was 4 years old when his father died, and when he was 6, he left his mother and fled Afghanistan with his grandparents. He added that Akbari said during the trial that he was a gambling addict and that police found no explosives or weapons when they searched his home.
“Mr. Akbari’s guilt is based on empty threats he communicated to a stranger, mistakenly assuming Mr. Ahmad would be sympathetic to Akbari’s own warped and hateful worldview,” the judge wrote. “There was no effort to publicize his threats beyond the conversation he shared with Mr. Ahmad.”
“That is not to say that the threats were harmless. Mr. Akbari’s threats were clearly motivated by bias, prejudice, and hate towards Israelis and Jews,” he wrote. “Hate-based threats are not just words. They are the gasoline upon which even more serious offences burn. Where hate is normalized, harm follows.
Noting that 40% of hate crimes reported in Toronto target Jews, who make up about 1% of the Canadian population, the judge wrote that “it is impossible to overstate the sense of fear, anger and frustration Mr. Akbari’s words have instilled in the broader Jewish community.”
‘What message does this send?’
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center called the judge’s ruling a “light sentence.”
“Suffice to say that we do not feel that the justice system is adequately confronting the rise in hate-motivated crime that is taking place, especially targeting the Jewish community,” Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the center, told JNS.
“I think this case is a pretty good example of the way that our system is failing us. A plot to commit mass murder of Jews is a very, very serious offense,” she said. “The consequence is 60 days of Netflix and chill, at home, really doesn’t send the serious message that’s required here.”
Similar “horrific” threats are heard at street demonstrations, and “the law falls short,” Kirzner-Roberts said.
Police officers have told the center that “hate crimes are vague” and “there is a lot of uncertainty of what they cover and what they don’t,” she told JNS. She added that the center has lobbied for years for elected officials to clarify the laws.
Josh Landau, director of government relations for Ontario at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, told JNS that “gaps in the criminal code must be closed to ensure extremists and hate groups cannot act without impunity.”
“In today’s climate, where Jews are 25 times more likely to be targeted in a hate crime than the average Canadian, lenient outcomes in serious cases risk sending the message that incitement to violence against Jews is not treated with the seriousness it deserves,” he said. “That is completely unacceptable.”
“Charges and sentences must be strong enough to deter future acts, ensure accountability and demonstrate a real commitment to protecting vulnerable communities, including Jewish Canadians,” Landau said.
“Only 60 days of house arrest for a man convicted of threatening to bomb all Toronto synagogues and ‘kill as many Jews as possible.’ Sorry, what?!” wrote Kevin Vuong, a former Canadian parliamentarian.
“What message does this send to our friends in the Jewish community?” he wrote. “And to the antisemitic bad actors?”
