Police are searching for at least three suspects in connection with a suspected hate-motivated vandalism incident in the city of Vaughan, located just north of Toronto, CityNews Toronto reports.
York Regional Police said on Wednesday that, shortly after 3:00 a.m. on January 9, a dark-colored Jeep Grand Cherokee stopped in front of a house in the city.
Video surveillance released by police shows two masked men getting out of the Jeep and approaching an SUV which was adorned with decals of the Israeli flag. The suspects then use a tool to shatter the windows of the vehicle before they get back into the Jeep and flee the scene.
The first suspect was last seen wearing a dark hooded jacket, dark pants with a reflective stripe on the side and a satchel across his chest.
The second suspect was last seen wearing a dark hooded jacket and dark pants with reflective material at the knee.
The vehicle is described as a Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV, which was driven by a third suspect who is not seen in the video.
Responding to the incident, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) wrote on X, “Yesterday, a Jewish family’s vehicle, which displays the Israeli flag, was badly vandalized in the area of Dufferin and Steeles in Vaughan, Ont. This comes just days after an Israeli flag was ripped at a home in Mission, BC.”
“Targeting private properties because they display the flag of Israel is antisemitism, pure and simple,” the organization stressed.
The incident is the second antisemitic incident in the city of Vaughan in recent days. On Saturday, a 34-year-old was arrested in what police are calling a suspected hate-motivated assault.
The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon around 1:45 p.m. local time. 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, before being arrested a few hours later.
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.