Police Issue Statement Regarding Jewish Man Assaulted in Montreal

Montreal police are investigating after a suspect assaulted a 32-year-old man on Aug. 8 afternoon.

Video posted on social media appears to show a religious Jewish man out with young children being beaten repeatedly by a young man who then throws the victim’s yarmulke before walking away from the scene. The video shows the young girl who accompanied the victim helping him to get to his feet after.

The Montreal Police Service (SVPM) confirmed the authenticity of the video in question, saying they responded to a 911 call around 2:45 p.m. Friday close to the intersection of de l’Épée Avenue and Beaumont Avenue in the Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension neighborhood.

“According to initial reports, it appears that a 32-year-old man was struck several times by a suspect,” an SVPM spokesperson said in an Aug. 8 email to The Epoch Times, adding that “the suspect fled before police arrived and has not yet been apprehended.”

The video shows the victim being struck hard at least six times and having difficulty getting to his feet after the assault. According to SVPM, the victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said the reasons for the assault are unknown at this time, and didn’t indicate whether it was hate-motivated.

“The reasons surrounding this assault are unknown at this time,” SVPM said, adding that the investigation into the attack is ongoing.

Political figures and Jewish advocacy groups have spoken out against this incident, saying it must lead to a tougher stance against anti-Semitism.

“An unprovoked attack on a Jewish father, in front of his own children, must not go unanswered,” the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs posted on X on Aug. 8. “No more ‘thoughts and prayers.’ Authorities must hold the attacker accountable, and leaders at all levels of government must confront this dangerous escalation.”

Jeremy Levi, the mayor of Hampstead, a Montreal suburb, also condemned the attack, posting on X on Aug. 8 that the assault in the video is “beyond deplorable.”

“It is an outrage against basic human decency,” Levi said, adding that Hampstead boosted its public security budget by 50 percent in the past in order to ensure it is “ready, capable, and unwilling to depend on politicians who lack the courage to protect their own citizens.”

Conservative MP Rachael Thomas echoed Levi’s and CIJA’s concerns over the video of the assault, calling it “absolutely horrific.”

“These are scenes the world has seen before. Empty words with no action are no longer acceptable. We must ACT to stop antisemitism in Canada,” she said.

Canada has experienced a surge of anti-Semitic incidents and attacks in the last several years, including attempted arson of the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue in Vancouver in May of last year, three incidents of shots fired at a Jewish girls school in Toronto last year, a number of bomb threats against Canadian synagogues and Jewish community centres, and the December 2024 firebomb attack on Montreal’s Beth Tikvah synagogue in Montreal.

A federal report by professor emeritus Robert Brym released last month found that one in ten Jewish students in Ontario were the victim of an anti-Semitic incident between October 2023 and January 2025, while B’Nai Brith Canada says 6,219 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in Canada last year, the most on record for the organization and a 7.4 percent rise since 2023.

In his July 30 announcement that Canada plans to recognize Palestinian statehood at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney referenced rising anti-Semitism in Canada, saying his government plans to put forward legislation this fall making it a crime to block a person’s entrance to a house of worship, school, or community centre, along with more funding for “vulnerable communities” and protection for “places of worship.”