Officials at a Jewish school in Montreal on Sunday called the shots fired at the facility for the second time in three days a “terrorist attack.”
• Also read: Shots again target a Jewish school in Montreal
• Also read: Rise in violence: “You will be and are safe in Montreal”
• Also read: Shootings at two Jewish schools: “A form of terrorism,” says Drainville
“We will not allow ourselves to be terrorized by people who want to commit acts of terrorism. Yes, we are dismayed, yes, we are worried. But our main task, which is to educate our children, will remain,” said former Ensemble Montréal director Lionel Perez, who served as spokesman for the Yeshiva Gedola school.
This school in the Outremont district was targeted by gunfire on Saturday night, just 72 hours after an initial attack.
According to witnesses, a vehicle was seen quickly leaving the scene shortly after the gun was fired toward the building. Several bullet casings were found on the ground.
So far there have been no arrests. The Hate Crimes Unit was called in to assist investigators.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante visited the site at noon Sunday to meet members of the community.
She called the shootings “an anti-Semitic act” but declined to comment on the use of the term “terrorist.”
“At the moment the Jewish community is under attack and I find it completely unacceptable that there are parents who are afraid to send their children to school,” she emphasized.
“The nation of Quebec is a peaceful nation. “Let us not import the hatred and violence that we see elsewhere in the world,” said Prime Minister François Legault.
School on Sunday
Dozens of schoolchildren were expected to be at the site in the hours after the incident as classes take place there from Sunday to Friday.
This is the third attack on a Jewish educational institution in Montreal in a week. Yeshiva Gedola School and another Jewish school were targeted by gunfire Thursday morning.
“We see that people are more anxious since then. However, it was a very safe area,” said the school’s immediate neighbor, Charles Abelson.
The SPVM has reported around fifty hate incidents against the Jewish community in a context where the war between Israel and Hamas has raised tensions as far away as Montreal since October 7th.
– With the QMI agency