
A man has been arrested in what police are calling a suspected hate-motivated assault in Vaughan, located just north of Toronto.
According to a report in CityNews Toronto on Tuesday, the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon around 1:45 p.m. local time, when police were called for reports of an assault.
It is alleged a group of four Jewish adults were walking home from a synagogue when they were approached by a man on an e-bike. Police say the victims felt intimidated by the way the man was riding the bike near them.
An argument broke out before the man allegedly spat at the group and made antisemitic comments. He rode away before officers arrived.
Officers arrested 34-year-old Kenneth Jeewan Gobin a few hours after the incident, CityNews reported. He has been charged with two counts of assault and one count of breach of probation.
“York Regional Police takes these matters seriously and is reminding the community we will not tolerate any form of hate crime or the threat of violence against anyone,” police said in a release, asking anyone with information to contact them.
Incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise in Toronto and the area since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Recently published information from the Toronto Police Service shows that incidents targeting the city’s Jewish community nearly doubled in 2023.
Recent incidents in Toronto include threats to the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, a Jewish high school in the district of North York.
The school was targeted again several weeks later when it was briefly evacuated following a bomb threat.
In early November, an Indigo book store in downtown Toronto was vandalized with red paint and posters plastered on its front windows wrongfully accusing its Jewish founder and CEO, Heather Reisman, of “Funding Genocide.”
Last week, a Jewish-owned grocery store in Toronto was spray-painted with the words “Free Palestine” and later set on fire.