Police name suspect wanted in connection with antisemitic incidents in Ontario, Canada

Investigators have identified an individual suspected in connection with several antisemitic incidences in Thornhill, Ontario as 43 year-old Kurt Edwards. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

On 18th September, officers responded to a report from a caller who was outside a synagogue when a male, unknown to him, began shouting antisemitic comments. The victim filmed the suspect who advanced towards the caller’s vehicle in an alleged attempt to assault the caller and his son.

In the video recording shared on social media, the suspect shouts, “Because you’re a piece of s***, you’re Jewish, you run the f****** world!”, before attempting to place his hand inside the car.

The suspect is believed to be responsible for six other related incidents which occurred over Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Private homes and garages were defaced with hateful graffiti that read, “Jews run the world” and “Jews hate blacks”. A vehicle had also been vandalised in the community of Thornhill, north of Toronto, home to Canada’s largest concentration of Jewish residents.

In Ottawa, another male reportedly spat and hurled insults towards worshippers in an outside service on the 19th September.

Investigators with the York Regional Policing Hate Crime Unit and the #4 District Criminal Investigations Bureau are now appealing to the general public in the city of Vaughan to help locate the man wanted in connection with the aforementioned hate crimes. York Regional Police have issued a statement that asks those with further information to come forward, and have emphasised a zero tolerance policy to ensure those responsible are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

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Image credit: York Regional Police