A 20-year-old man who admitted setting fire to a Montreal-area synagogue after being offered $15,000 for a series of arsons was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison, followed by three years of probation, according to the Montreal Gazette.
Quebec Court Judge Karine Giguère handed down the sentence against Mohamed Ilyess Akodad at the Montreal courthouse, saying his actions on December 18, 2024, were “insidious because they don’t only impact on the immediate targets, but they also transmit a message of fear to the whole community."
Taking into account time already spent in detention, Akodad has 127 days remaining on his sentence. He will also be required to complete 100 hours of community service during probation.
Akodad pleaded guilty in January to charges stemming from the attack on Congregation Beth Tikvah on Westpark Blvd. in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. He also smashed windows at a nearby Jewish community center operated by Federation CJA on Roger-Pilon St. The judge accepted the Crown's request for a two-year prison sentence and rejected defense lawyer Nazar Saaty's proposal that Akodad serve his sentence in the community, stating that “a sentence to be served in the community is not appropriate in these circumstances."
During sentencing proceedings this summer, Akodad testified that he had consumed a large quantity of drugs while spending time with a friend in Parc-Extension before continuing to a short-term rental condo in downtown Montreal. There, he said, he overheard a conversation about finding someone for a mission.
Akodad testified that he was handed a phone and spoke by video with an unidentified man, who allegedly offered him $15,000 to target two buildings and a vehicle. He said the man promised to supply the necessary materials and arrange transportation between the locations. Akodad later told the court that he was actually paid $3,000.
According to his testimony, the driver first took him to the Jewish community center. Akodad broke several windows but decided the damage was insufficient to allow him to start a fire inside. He returned to the vehicle and falsely told the person who had arranged the attack that he had abandoned the plan after becoming frightened by a passerby.
About 10 minutes later, the driver took him to Congregation Beth Tikvah, which is located close to the community center. Akodad said he believed the longer route was intended to make it more difficult to detect them. He broke windows at the synagogue with a hammer, used an accelerant and then ignited a piece of brown paper and threw it inside.
“The fire exploded to a point where he was injured," the judge said. “At each of the addresses, he estimates he was there for two or three minutes. He mentioned that because of the stress, the darkness and the pressure to act quickly, he did not take the time to look at what the buildings were. He says the buildings resembled businesses. Based on watching media reports, he assumed that ‘barbecues’ were generally for businesses being extorted. He figured this was the case for him as well. After the events, he learned in the media that one of the buildings was a place of worship for the Jewish community."
The attacks caused more than $7,000 in property damage. Giguère said the incident had a significant impact on Montreal's Jewish community, with some members questioning whether openly displaying their Jewish identity could make them targets.
B'nai Brith Canada welcomed the sentence. The organization said it commended the judge “for holding an arsonist who targeted Jewish institutions in Montreal accountable."
“A sentence that includes incarceration sends a clear message that targeting houses of worship or Jewish communal infrastructure will not be tolerated in our society," said Henry Topas, who was B'nai Brith Canada's Regional Director for Quebec and Atlantic Canada when the offenses occurred and was also serving as Congregation Beth Tikvah's cantor. “It is crucial that Canadians have faith in our justice system that perpetrators of these crimes will be held accountable to the full extent of the law."
“Akodad caused a great deal of harm to the Jewish community of Montreal and now he is paying the price for his actions," Paola Samuel, Regional Director, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, wrote in the same release. “We are relieved that he will be in prison serving the remainder of a 24-month sentence and hope that this acts as a clear warning to those who target vulnerable communities."
The December 2024 arson was the second firebombing targeting Congregation Beth Tikvah. The synagogue had previously been targeted on November 7, 2023, one month after Hamas' October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.
The latest case comes amid a series of antisemitic incidents in Montreal. In November 2024, a man described as Arab entered a Jewish-owned business and threatened to kill its owners while directing an expletive-filled tirade against Jews and Israel.
The incident followed violent unrest during a pro-Palestinian Arab demonstration in Montreal, when protesters burned an effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, threw firecrackers at police, smashed store windows and set several vehicles on fire.
Other incidents have included the July 2024 vandalism of a Jewish cemetery, where stones were arranged over graves in the shape of a swastika, and the discovery the following November of the words “Kill all Jews" and “Allahu Akbar" scrawled on a bathroom wall at Concordia University. In March, a kosher restaurant and a neighboring business were vandalized.
In July, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) hate crimes unit began investigating targeted incidents involving Hasidic Jewish residents in Outremont and Mile-End. The Council of Hasidic Jews of Quebec said worshippers returning from Shabbat services had been aggressively harassed by people in a vehicle.
A month later, a suspected overnight arson attack caused extensive damage to Nöam, a kosher restaurant in Montreal's Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough.