Montreal police (SPVM) have arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with an alleged hate crime after a 51-year-old Jewish man was attacked after an Israel Day celebration.
The May 5 assault on Wood Avenue in the City of Westmount was captured on video and showed two individuals grabbing the man's flag and hitting him with it in the middle of the day.
The SPVM hate crime unit investigated the incident and arrested one of the two suspects earlier this week. Police spokesperson Mariane Allaire Morin said the teen was released on a promise to appear in court at a later date.
The Crown prosecutor will determine what charges he might face, though police indicate it is likely they will include assault with a weapon and robbery.
Police have not arrested the second suspect, but said the investigation is ongoing.
The Jewish rights organization B'nai Brith drew attention to the assault and called on police to investigate it as a hate crime.
"B'nai Brith Canada and the Jewish community are breathing sighs of relief that the Montreal police force worked diligently on this appalling incident and have made an arrest," said Marvin Rotrand, national director of B'nai Brith's League for Human Rights.
"It is absolutely unacceptable for anyone to be attacked on the streets of Montreal or anywhere merely because they are expressing their pride in Israel."
Since the suspect is a minor, he cannot be identified.
B'nai Brith releases audits every year tracking anti-Semitic acts, and the organization's 2021 audit showed incidents in Quebec rose from 626 a year earlier to 828. Violent acts targetting Jewish people rose from five in 2020 to 35 in 2021, B'nai Brith says.
"These are unacceptable numbers," said Rotrand. "The Jewish community wants to see the province, city, and police allocate the resources to ensure that there is no repeat of 2021's explosion of antisemitic incidents."
With files from CTV News Montreal's Max Harrold
