Montreal Man Found Not Criminally Responsible in Assault on Jewish Father

A Quebec judge has ruled that a man who attacked a Jewish father in a Montreal park last month is not criminally responsible.

The Aug. 8 incident saw 23-year-old Sergio Yanes Preciado charged with assault causing bodily harm after he sprayed the man with his water bottle before punching and kneeing him repeatedly and then tossing what seemed to be the victim’s kippah, a traditional Jewish head covering, into a splash pad before fleeing the scene. Preciado was subsequently arrested on Aug. 11.

Judge Joëlle Roy concluded in her Sept. 15 ruling that Preciado, who is currently being detained at Montreal General Hospital, was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the assault and, therefore, can’t be held criminally responsible.

Preciado was sent to the Philippe Pinel Institute for a 30-day psychiatric evaluation following his arrest. A sealed report on his mental health has since been issued by criminologists Samuel Lavergne and Mathieu Dufour, but the Quebec Court judge who ordered that Preciado be sent to the Philippe Pinel Institute revealed some of its findings in open court.

The report said Preciado was having a difficult time after he lost his job working at a theatre in April and began taking drugs. He was also having mental health difficulties, according to his mother. The judge said the hot weather at the time of the assault may also have contributed to the incident.

Preciado’s attack was “unlikely” to have been motivated by hate, the report said. His case will now be further assessed by the Mental Disorders Examination Commission to look at possible conditions of release.

The victim, a 32-year-old Jewish father, was with his two young children at the time of the attack. He sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

A video clip of the incident went viral online, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Mark Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Quebec Premier François Legault, and a host of political leaders including Israeli minister of foreign affairs Gideon Sa’ar.

There has been a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents and attacks in Canada since Hamas conducted raids inside Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with Israel launching military operations in the Gaza Strip in response.

In the latest incident, an elderly Jewish woman was stabbed in an Ottawa grocery store on Aug. 27, in what police describe as a “hate-motivated crime.” The attack left the victim with severe but non-life-threatening injuries and was condemned by Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Carney, who pledged more government action against anti-Semitism. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre urged harsh penalties for the attacker. Seventy-one-year-old Joseph Rook of Cornwall, Ont., was charged in connection with the case.

Thirty-two Liberal MPs released a statement condemning the rise of anti-Semitism in Canada on Aug. 31 following the stabbing, noting that although Jewish  people comprise roughly 1 percent of Canada’s population, they were the target of 70 percent of religiously-motivated hate crimes in 2024. The statement urged government, law enforcement, schools, and businesses to do more to combat anti-Semitism in Canada.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser has vowed to put forward changes to Canada’s Criminal Code to provide enhanced protection for safety around religious buildings and community centres.

Ottawa police data shows Jewish people were the most targeted group in hate crimes in 2024.

Jewish group B’nai Brith Canada said the 6,219 anti-Semitic incidents it has on record for 2024 are the most it has ever documented in a single year since the 1980s when it first began tracking them. The figure represents a 7.4 percent jump over 2023.