Swastika attack in Montreal considered hate crime

MONTREAL (JTA) — Envelopes on the windshields of at least one of four vandalized cars in a Jewish neighborhood of Montreal contained single bullets and the message “You Will Die.”

The cars in an apartment building garage in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighborhood were spray-painted with large red swastikas on their hoods. The swastikas faced the wrong way and one windshield was smashed with a pickaxe, which was left behind. Two of the car owners were Jewish.

The vandalism, which was discovered Monday night, is being treated as a hate crime by police. The cars were found after residents gathered in the lobby of the building after the fire alarm went off at 10 p.m. and a resident checked the garage.

“[T]his was not just an act of simple vandalism but a crime targeting the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Reuben Poupko of the community’s main advocacy group, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

The Quebec Legislature passed a unanimous motion deploring the incident.