OTTAWA, Nov 9 (Portal) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday condemned recent violence as unacceptable after shots were fired at two Jewish schools in Montreal overnight and clashes broke out between students at a university in the same city late on Wednesday .
Police said Thursday they are investigating late-night shootings at two Jewish schools in Montreal. Local media reported that both schools discovered a bullet hole in their front door on Thursday morning.
There were no injuries and it was not clear whether the incidents were related.
On Wednesday, a violent clash broke out at Concordia University between people aligned with opposing sides in the conflict in Israel and Gaza, resulting in injuries and one arrest, according to CBC News.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York, United States, September 21, 2023. Portal/Mike Segar/File Photo Acquire License Rights
“I understand that people are deeply disturbed by what they see there,” Trudeau told reporters in the Montreal area on Thursday.
However, “violence, hatred, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and scenes like the ones we saw at Concordia University or shootings at Jewish schools overnight – all of that is unacceptable,” he said.
In Toronto, police have reported that hate crimes against Jews and Muslims more than doubled throughout 2022 in the three weeks after the first Hamas attack on October 7.
Israel said an estimated 1,400 people were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage in the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The subsequent Israeli bombing of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip killed more than 10,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
(This story has been re-archived to add the omitted word “they” in paragraph 2 and remove an additional “the” in paragraph 4)
Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Jenna Zucker in Toronto; Edited by Steve Scherer and Daniel Wallis
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab